Canonical Literature Vs. Contemporary Interests: One Teacher’s View on Literature in Schools

            I am, and have always been, a bit of a classicist. I enjoy things delivered in their pure form, or at least the pure form that was bestowed upon me. The problem with my traditionalist ways is that I am also fascinated with technology and the advancements that world has made in the past few decades. This causes a world of chaos for me that no one can possibly understand. I fought off getting an iPod for several year because I enjoyed having a physical CD and cover art. The same with cell phones, gaming systems, blu rays, and other advancements in the technological world. I don’t know why, but I fight and fight until I conform. And then I fall in love. Out go all of the CD’s because they are useless. The cover art? Who needs it? I convert into this monster that must cleanse himself of outdated possessions. Ever see the “Obsolete Man” episode of Twilight Zone? Well for a brief time I become the dictator in charge of purging society of all things obsolete.

Chipotle: Authentic Anglo-American Mexican Experience

A couple of months ago I was excited to read this article about how Chipotle was going to incorporate short stories and essays from prominent writers on their cups. I thought this was the coolest idea ever. Although I rarely eat at Chipotle, putting literature on cups seems like a great experience and provides the average Joe with an opportunity to read something interesting and new. The cups feature contributions from Jonathan Safran Foer, Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, and others. Some writers would contribute short stories and some would contribute essays for Chipotle’s cups and bags. This all stemmed from a bored Foer eating a burrito without a thing to read in proximity. He reached out to Chipotle’s CEO and the movement to put words on cups began.

Here are a few of the cups in all their controversial glory.

Is Writing Across the Curriculum Important?

            I used to begin the school year by telling all of my students that my job as an English teacher was the most important job in the world and that their class would be the most significant they would ever have. I used this bit of hyperbole to capture their curiosity, but I would explain to them that it was my job to teach them what they would have to use in all of their other classes, and jobs, for the rest of their lives. This was my way of expressing to them the importance of reading and writing in our society. I do not do this anymore because I truly value the movement of interdisciplinary writing and writing across the curriculum, and I would hate to belittle that concept to my students by demeaning my colleagues and their approach to teaching literacy skills. On the contrary, I want my students to make the connection that writing has across the spectrum of education.

Reading and writing are ways to analyze and synthesize life and help us find meaning in things. Writing is key to learning. It helps us process, decode, and understand our complex thoughts or the complex thoughts of others. A main focus of the “Writing is…” video was the fact that writing is an outlet; not only for creativity, but also for expression of thought and knowledge. All classes in content areas require these skills to learn, and writing is used in each of them. Here is a video about the significance of writing in our society.

What Blogging Used to Look Like

Maybe it’s just me, but I have kept most of my essays and writing since high school. I could have easily thrown them away, and probably should have, but there was a little voice inside my 15 year old head telling me that I might find these significant later in life. The mere fact that this voice was heard through all of the other thoughts of girls and spontaneous erections is a miracle, but perhaps it was destiny.

I knew that I had to be an English teacher when I was a freshman in high school. I used to attribute it to the fact that my English teachers were cool and they “got” me, but in retrospect I have always loved reading and writing. It wasn’t really teaching that interested me, it was sharing cool shit that happens in novels with new audiences every year. Of course, I developed a love for pedagogy as the years went by, but at first I was all about the literature.

I wrote a lot in high school. It was the dawn of the Internet and information was reaching people at record breaking dial-up speeds. This was really of no interest to me at the time. I was all about writing in my journal and writing songs for my band that was sure to become a huge success. A few gentle compliments from a couple English teachers and I thought of myself as the motherfuckin literary master of Rosemead High School. So, of course I kept my essays to document my ascension as a writer.