But to be completely honest, I've felt uncomfortable at times teaching this text and its racial themes and implications. I didn't really realize the demographics of the high school that I'm currently teaching at until a student wrote about it in their homework. As I looked around my classroom one day I saw it. Most of my students are white, with a sprinkling of black, Hispanic and Asian students. While I was surveying my class from my desk looking for those confused faces as we talked about internalized racism in The Bluest Eye and within American society I noticed instead the uncomfortableness that my students of color exhibited. They knew what I was talking about, but instead of contributing to the class discussions I noticed them desperately trying to blend in and hide from my gaze.
During one particular racy :) class discussion I noticed one of my students become physically agitated with the classes use of the N-word, and the discussion surrounding it. After class we had a chat about what he was thinking about how he felt about the conversations that we were having in connection to The Bluest Eye. He (we'll call him Marcus) looks at me and says, "they don't get it... they think they do, but it's my life." The class's discussions about the issues that Morrison brings up in The Bluest Eye have been dynamic, interesting, thought-provoking, but academic. I try to contextualize the issues in the text so that the students can use personal experiences to relate to it better, but I can understand what Marcus was saying. How can a white girl living in the Upper West Side wearing a bright orange Louis Vuitton scarf really know about the American race problem?
But, that doesn't mean that I as a teacher should shy away from those tough issues and topics that seem almost unrelatable because despite Marcus' frustrations and belief that his white classmates don't "get it." They (as much as him) need to be educated not just about racism, but about also about the war in Iraq, the genocides in Rwanda, world health issues... This is what school and education is for. It's for the people regardless of class, sex, religion, or ethnicity so we (as teachers) can educate them in order to change the world, one Upper East Sider at a time.
x,
Ms. P
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2 comments:
I applaud you for not shying away from teaching and addressing tough topics in the classroom. I'm a former elementary classroom teacher and school librarian who made it a point to read literature that was uncomfortable; it challenged us to truly dialogue about all the stereotypes and assumptions we've all made (and heard made) about ourselves and each other in society. As a result, my students and I began to view ourselves and our circumstances with a renewed understanding that none of us thought possible. The business of learning then took on a whole new meaning and made the school year a very productive one!
KUDOS to you and to the lives you're changing this school year and beyond!
Check out this link below if you have not see Toni's brief explanation for how THE BLUEST EYES came to be - http://www.thegritsbookclub.com/bookreviews/?p=165
Bravo on working with such an important and complex topic.
I went to private school, and I realized (after writing a essay about why affirmative action is unfair) that I wasn't really in a position to have as educated/adult an opinion as I thought I did. It took a smart teacher who was willing to work with an uncomfortable topic to show me just how biased and one sided my perspective was.
Another time, my senior year, I looked around my English class and realized that I was the only minority in the class and I further realized that not only did I not have a full, understanding of these issues, but my classmates didn't grap what I was going through as an Indian child of immigrants.
So often, as youths, we think 1. we are further along than we are, and 2. we see other people as "not getting it". We need good teachers to show us the limits of our our understanding, even as we are coming to grips with the limitations of others understanding.
Keep up the important work!
-rocketman
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