Yup, one of the worst and best things about teaching ELA here in… well, in the province I teach in… is choosing my material. We have a list of “recommended texts” for each grade (or, in some cases, grade range, which means some students study the same book in grade 10, 11, and 12!) but really, we’re more or less free to choose the texts we want to accomplish our many governmentally required course objectives.
It’s great, in that if I don’t like a particular text, I’m not stuck trying to generate enough enthusiasm to effectively spend a month on the drivel, nor work on keeping my lips from sneering every time I say the author’s name. It’s also great if we’re trying to organize units thematically – we can choose a text that fits a particular theme. Nice, too, because it’s fun to change things up as a teacher, and also choose a text that fits a certain group of students.
It’s great, in that if I don’t like a particular text, I’m not stuck trying to generate enough enthusiasm to effectively spend a month on the drivel, nor work on keeping my lips from sneering every time I say the author’s name. It’s also great if we’re trying to organize units thematically – we can choose a text that fits a particular theme. Nice, too, because it’s fun to change things up as a teacher, and also choose a text that fits a certain group of students.
It’s hard, though, because so many literary texts are so very depressing, and while I think tragedy is an extremely valuable writing form, often rich in meaning and lasting impressions, it can also be a drag to read piece after piece of sad, dark, “true-to-life-especially-if-you’ve-had-a-very-bad-life” literature.
I don’t want my students to ONLY be learning lessons from unhappy characters, or seeing how their poor choices resulted in their unhappy lives (so we can make better choices, of course). I mean, some of that is fine. But piece after piece of that kind of writing makes teaching ELA so – I don’t know, exactly – unhappy, maybe.
The Pigman, for instance (a great piece of writing taught in grade 9, which really does teach a number of valuable things and tends to engage the readers), makes the statement at the end of the novel when, (spoiler alert!) this old man dies due to the actions, mostly, of these two well-meaning but messed up young teens, “Maybe we were all baboons for that matter – big baffling baboons—smiling away and not really caring what was going on as long as there were enough peanuts bouncing around to think about—the whole pack of us—…baffled baboons concentrating on all the wrong things.” The quote and conclusion is a great lead in to questions like, “how do we concentrate on the wrong things”, and “how can we make our lives really matter/count” – but I wonder, can’t there be a more uplifting and positive way to bring these questions to light? Isn’t there a text out there that can be pleasant to read as well as meaningful?
And, of course, as a Christian teacher of many teens, am I being responsible about the literature I’m choosing? I wonder if God’s going to look at me in the end and say, “Seriously? You made them read THAT?” (or something to that effect). I want to have no regrets about the way I spent my students’ time, about the things I had them take into their minds, about the way I chose to bring up important literary and moral and critical thinking issues. I mean, YES, there is value in texts like the Pigman (to pick on one title, which seems convenient for the moment), but is it the BEST way to get value from the course?
The Pigman, for instance (a great piece of writing taught in grade 9, which really does teach a number of valuable things and tends to engage the readers), makes the statement at the end of the novel when, (spoiler alert!) this old man dies due to the actions, mostly, of these two well-meaning but messed up young teens, “Maybe we were all baboons for that matter – big baffling baboons—smiling away and not really caring what was going on as long as there were enough peanuts bouncing around to think about—the whole pack of us—…baffled baboons concentrating on all the wrong things.” The quote and conclusion is a great lead in to questions like, “how do we concentrate on the wrong things”, and “how can we make our lives really matter/count” – but I wonder, can’t there be a more uplifting and positive way to bring these questions to light? Isn’t there a text out there that can be pleasant to read as well as meaningful?
And, of course, as a Christian teacher of many teens, am I being responsible about the literature I’m choosing? I wonder if God’s going to look at me in the end and say, “Seriously? You made them read THAT?” (or something to that effect). I want to have no regrets about the way I spent my students’ time, about the things I had them take into their minds, about the way I chose to bring up important literary and moral and critical thinking issues. I mean, YES, there is value in texts like the Pigman (to pick on one title, which seems convenient for the moment), but is it the BEST way to get value from the course?
Anyway, that’s just my current frustration. I’m not sure I have an answer. I just keep looking for that text that is extremely well written, meaningful, and uplifting. So far, I just haven’t found it. And not to be pessimistic or anything, but I’m not even sure it exists.
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