RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

I think I can safely say I’m not alone when I tell you the big “Ahha!” moment for me was like an epiphany. Of course the unique experiences of the reader / writer / learner will affect the literacy acquisition of each of us in unique and wondrous, sometimes disastrous ways. This is now my new norm, and I can put faces to each child who I can see as living quite different discourses than mine. So after the big moment, I get it. I really do. I think the author is really killing us with details here. Truly, Janet Frame and bell hooks are interesting women, who really can write. But if each of us sat down as though to write a memoir, we could all relate special histories about how we learned to…and the people who taught us. The people we came to share values with, and to find approval and encouragement from. I firmly believe that each of us (and especially the type of person who becomes a teacher) has some stories to recount as to our life’s learning.

There are lots of Lauries out there. Only the names are Hannah, Ashley and Lorie. Each one with a story, a body of life experience. I lay awake at night thinking of kids and how I can help them learn better. Each one of these special students is as unique and complex as any scientific field of study. Their lives are situating in “hybrid identities” and additionally, their histories… “are situated within histories of locality, gender, race and class. Literacy learning is part of… these” p 37.
I really liked the recounting of how Frame’s Is-land brought her to an adventure whenever she wanted it. “I did not need to travel…I could experience an adventure by reading a book” (pg. 32). As I read her story, I rejoiced. “Hooray, a lifelong joyful reader is born! Some of the same details occurred in my literacy acquisition experience. I read fairy tales. I pretended to be a princess or lost or sailing or wherever. I read under the covers. I read to escape a really bad home life rife with economic stress, emotions and uncertainty. But those “emotions are inseparable from actions and relations, from lived experience” (65 ), or our own unique history Point is, I can identify with what others are telling me they went through, and so therefore I think I can in some way connect with my students. So we as teachers need to be mindful of these different norms, find likenesses and similarities between us. I think they will be more numerous than the differences.
I also really pounced upon what Michel de Certeau had to say. “Choices of style and form create different literary experiences”. So Laurie was making choices in her literary experience. Too many dedicated hard working teachers beat themselves up when their charges don’t do as well as they hoped. Teachers must try to realize these students come to us as they are, with a skill set ready to be expanded upon. We do all things possible to maximize learning, and that is the most we can do.
How very sad to read about Laurie’s diagnosis of ADD and her subsequent medication. How many times have you seen a child subdued and withdrawn on meds? And the side effects are so unpleasant for them. I refrained from medicating my son, and I am glad I did. It was tough to read Laurie’s experiences. She could be anyone’s daughter. We all want so much for our children to be happy, learn well, and prosper. “How can we help shape… those critical engagements with literacy practices?” (page 81). By sensitivity, compassion, and dedication. And try not to get your heart broken by some of the history that your students tell you.

Annie Croon