Keeping Warm

You might have heard that California is experiencing record cold right now.

I tell you, it's all true.

Thank goodness the heater's finally been fixed, and I don't have to go plow the fields or harvest fruit or anything like that.

I didn't go on the date last night after all. I had forgotten about a writing in-service, "Renewal" if you will, that I was attending. I'm a fellow in the National Writing Project, and every three months or so we have these meetings. Really great for revving up the old teaching engine, and also the writing one. Yesterday was all about the importance of literature, and why we need to continue teaching it.

Didn't you know? There's a movement to discontinue teaching fiction completely at the secondary level. The reason being that college freshman don't know how to read for information. Doesn't it follow that Flowers for Algernon and Huckleberry Finn are to blame for that? As if English class is the only place where students are reading at all?

Seems to me the whole baby-with-the-bathwater business.

If I remember correctly, I had to read for history and chemistry and government and biology classes. That reading wasn't for fun. At least not for me. I had to read dense material, figure out how to extract important information, and then put it back together again in the papers I wrote.

And speaking of fun, I don't recall Billy Budd as being "fun." I read it because it was assigned. English is the only class where students are expected to learn content and literacy.

That's not right.

I'm on my soapbox now.

In California, there are 62 state standards for English in the eighth grade. In science? Just seven.

No, I'm not saying that science teachers have it easier than English teachers; not at all. I don't want anything to do with dissecting a fetal pig, thank you very much. What I am saying is that although we learn literacy in all classes, English is the only one one held accountable for it.

As adults, we need the ability to read expository writing. We don't need to read fiction. What I see though, is that by taking fiction out of the classroom completely, we're taking away opportunities for our students to experience other worlds, points of view, and dare I say it, shared cultural touch points.

I've learned more about history through fiction than I ever did through memorizing dates and the names of places and wars.

We share ourselves through our stories. What are these blogs anyway? Perhaps not fiction, but certainly stories. Other viewpoints, other perspectives, other ideas, new ideas... would I have made the same choices as this character? Would I be as strong as him? What would I have done differently? Why is she feeling this way?

Have you ever read a book that seemed to be just written for you? Or a poem that you read at the exact moment it meant something to you?

Don't tell me literature isn't necessary.

(oh, so back to the non-date? The meeting was in Ventura, and we weren't going to get back until late... I've not rescheduled as of yet.)