Class,
First of all, I want to thank the mock trial participants for working extra hard this past week to learn their positions and for developing the questions they needed for interrogation. I think this went pretty well, and I hope you all learned a little more about Andrew Jackson and the complicated history and legacy surrounding him. Complicated history can pretty much sum up the theme for a lot of our studies this year. American history is full of some of the most heroic figures, incredible events, bravery, and ingenuity the world has ever seen. It is also full of atrocities, great harm to millions of individuals, greed, and corruption. We have much to celebrate; we have much to grieve and learn from. I try to balance both of these themes in our class, lest we proceed blindly forward without recognizing our roots. I'm not a fan of those texts that blot out the complicated realities. And I'm not a fan of the texts that denigrate and overlook our accomplishments. Instead, I prefer to take an honest approach and look at these things head on. This can feel uncomfortable sometimes. I wish our narrative was purer, kinder, and better. But I do believe that looking at these harder issues can teach us to proceed with more purity, kindness, and goodness. I'm one that tries to learn from my own mistakes and also my own accomplishments. This is the approach I hope we can take here.
Our literature is also complicated. A student asked me today in class why we read the poem and letter about the N-word. Well, it's because this word is hurtful to many, many people. And this word appears in our text 216 times. This word has led this text to be banned in many schools and to have some re-write the text blotting it out. This word still ignites anger and instigates a response. I think it would be irresponsible of me, as a teacher, to ignore this. I know this word is in some music, in our films, and even spoken in the grocery store aisles. Many of us shared how our grandparents have used this word. So to ignore this in our class doesn't make sense to me. I'm an English teacher, so I am constantly analyzing words. You should, too. Authors choose words for a reason. For example, remember in "Rip Van Winkle," the wife was referred to as a "shrew" instead of "woman" or "lady." Certain words carry different meanings. I am not just an English teacher, though. I am also a Christian. This means that I believe that I am commanded to love my neighbor and that love is the greatest commandment I am called to follow. Therefore, I will not use this word in my classroom and I will not allow others to use this word in the classroom, either. This isn't about being politically correct. It is about love. I always welcome debate, but it must always be done with kindness.
For those of you that want to re-watch the 60 minutes video, or if your parents want to see this video to better understand the debate, I'm placing the link here. I hope you continue these conversations at home or in your church. I think they are so important to have and I'm thankful to teach texts that invite us to examine these issues. For our class, we will read Mark Twain's text as it is written, but I hope you understand why this word is controversial and why such a controversial word helps us to understand Twain's purpose for this novel.
Your assignments this week include reading the next ten chapters of Huckleberry Finn and looking for the theme that you signed up for. For example, if you put your name under the heading "Religion," place a small post-it note or highlight the passages that make any reference to or allusion to religion. This could be something obvious, like a prayer, a remark about religion, or it could be a little deeper, like the cross carved into the bottom of Pap's boot, the snake that bit Jim on the heel, etc. If you signed up for Money, keep an eye out for any passages or remarks celebrating or critiquing riches, poverty, etc. How is money portrayed in this novel? Is it something Huck wants? Do those that have it seem better off? What is Twain's message, do you think, regarding money or riches? Next week, you will gather into your groups and work together to share your insights with the rest of the class. You only need to focus on one theme, but by the end of our meeting, hopefully, you will be exposed to about a dozen. And when you can pull out a dozen themes from one novel, man, you have one heck of a novel on your hands! That is good literature!
For history, I'd like you to look into some of our Civil War leaders and read as much about them as you can find. Much like Andrew Jackson, their legacies are complicated. Some find these complications overshadow their contributions. I'm not so worried about whether you agree with this or not, but with having you familiar with their stories. First of all, they all played a major role in the history we are moving into. Second of all, if we cry out for the removal or the protection of these statues, and we do not know a thing about these people depicted in the statues, we lose credibility. So, let's learn their stories. You can decide personally where you think they stand in history. But I want you to be familiar with the stories, not just their marble images.
Please pick one of the following people to research:
Robert E. Lee
Ulysses S. Grant
Clara Barton
Jefferson Davis
Abraham Lincoln
General William Tecumseh Sherman
Wade Hampton III
John Brown (you may find more under John Brown's raid)
Shiloh---you get to teach us about the Battle of Shiloh. :)
I will cover some topics like slavery during the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, women during the Civil War, the Confederate Strategy, and the Union Strategy.
We did not have time for our plagiarism game, but we will do this next week. Each year, I always have a few students that try to copy and paste their paragraph from the Internet. This is cheating and it is also theft. If I find that you are plagiarizing, I will ask you to re-do the assignment. Your second offense, I'll ask your parents to have you re-do the assignment. Here's the thing about plagiarism: It is academic dishonesty. I would rather that you didn't turn in a paper that week than to steal the work of someone else. One is lazy. The other is lazy and dishonest. Most colleges have zero tolerance for plagiarism. It can get you kicked out of a university. It is a very serious issue. Whenever in doubt, use quotation marks around the words that do not belong to you and follow with a citation. Here's an example.
This is plagiarism:
The most intense fighting west of the Mississippi occurred along the Kansas-Missouri border, where the disputes that had developed between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the 1850s turned into brutal guerilla warfare.
This is good research:
According to David Emory Shi, "The most intense fighting west of the Mississippi occurred along the Kansas-Missouri border, where the disputes that had developed between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the 1850s turned into brutal guerilla warfare" (America 540).
First of all, I want to thank the mock trial participants for working extra hard this past week to learn their positions and for developing the questions they needed for interrogation. I think this went pretty well, and I hope you all learned a little more about Andrew Jackson and the complicated history and legacy surrounding him. Complicated history can pretty much sum up the theme for a lot of our studies this year. American history is full of some of the most heroic figures, incredible events, bravery, and ingenuity the world has ever seen. It is also full of atrocities, great harm to millions of individuals, greed, and corruption. We have much to celebrate; we have much to grieve and learn from. I try to balance both of these themes in our class, lest we proceed blindly forward without recognizing our roots. I'm not a fan of those texts that blot out the complicated realities. And I'm not a fan of the texts that denigrate and overlook our accomplishments. Instead, I prefer to take an honest approach and look at these things head on. This can feel uncomfortable sometimes. I wish our narrative was purer, kinder, and better. But I do believe that looking at these harder issues can teach us to proceed with more purity, kindness, and goodness. I'm one that tries to learn from my own mistakes and also my own accomplishments. This is the approach I hope we can take here.
Our literature is also complicated. A student asked me today in class why we read the poem and letter about the N-word. Well, it's because this word is hurtful to many, many people. And this word appears in our text 216 times. This word has led this text to be banned in many schools and to have some re-write the text blotting it out. This word still ignites anger and instigates a response. I think it would be irresponsible of me, as a teacher, to ignore this. I know this word is in some music, in our films, and even spoken in the grocery store aisles. Many of us shared how our grandparents have used this word. So to ignore this in our class doesn't make sense to me. I'm an English teacher, so I am constantly analyzing words. You should, too. Authors choose words for a reason. For example, remember in "Rip Van Winkle," the wife was referred to as a "shrew" instead of "woman" or "lady." Certain words carry different meanings. I am not just an English teacher, though. I am also a Christian. This means that I believe that I am commanded to love my neighbor and that love is the greatest commandment I am called to follow. Therefore, I will not use this word in my classroom and I will not allow others to use this word in the classroom, either. This isn't about being politically correct. It is about love. I always welcome debate, but it must always be done with kindness.
For those of you that want to re-watch the 60 minutes video, or if your parents want to see this video to better understand the debate, I'm placing the link here. I hope you continue these conversations at home or in your church. I think they are so important to have and I'm thankful to teach texts that invite us to examine these issues. For our class, we will read Mark Twain's text as it is written, but I hope you understand why this word is controversial and why such a controversial word helps us to understand Twain's purpose for this novel.
Your assignments this week include reading the next ten chapters of Huckleberry Finn and looking for the theme that you signed up for. For example, if you put your name under the heading "Religion," place a small post-it note or highlight the passages that make any reference to or allusion to religion. This could be something obvious, like a prayer, a remark about religion, or it could be a little deeper, like the cross carved into the bottom of Pap's boot, the snake that bit Jim on the heel, etc. If you signed up for Money, keep an eye out for any passages or remarks celebrating or critiquing riches, poverty, etc. How is money portrayed in this novel? Is it something Huck wants? Do those that have it seem better off? What is Twain's message, do you think, regarding money or riches? Next week, you will gather into your groups and work together to share your insights with the rest of the class. You only need to focus on one theme, but by the end of our meeting, hopefully, you will be exposed to about a dozen. And when you can pull out a dozen themes from one novel, man, you have one heck of a novel on your hands! That is good literature!
For history, I'd like you to look into some of our Civil War leaders and read as much about them as you can find. Much like Andrew Jackson, their legacies are complicated. Some find these complications overshadow their contributions. I'm not so worried about whether you agree with this or not, but with having you familiar with their stories. First of all, they all played a major role in the history we are moving into. Second of all, if we cry out for the removal or the protection of these statues, and we do not know a thing about these people depicted in the statues, we lose credibility. So, let's learn their stories. You can decide personally where you think they stand in history. But I want you to be familiar with the stories, not just their marble images.
Please pick one of the following people to research:
Robert E. Lee
Ulysses S. Grant
Clara Barton
Jefferson Davis
Abraham Lincoln
General William Tecumseh Sherman
Wade Hampton III
John Brown (you may find more under John Brown's raid)
Shiloh---you get to teach us about the Battle of Shiloh. :)
I will cover some topics like slavery during the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, women during the Civil War, the Confederate Strategy, and the Union Strategy.
We did not have time for our plagiarism game, but we will do this next week. Each year, I always have a few students that try to copy and paste their paragraph from the Internet. This is cheating and it is also theft. If I find that you are plagiarizing, I will ask you to re-do the assignment. Your second offense, I'll ask your parents to have you re-do the assignment. Here's the thing about plagiarism: It is academic dishonesty. I would rather that you didn't turn in a paper that week than to steal the work of someone else. One is lazy. The other is lazy and dishonest. Most colleges have zero tolerance for plagiarism. It can get you kicked out of a university. It is a very serious issue. Whenever in doubt, use quotation marks around the words that do not belong to you and follow with a citation. Here's an example.
This is plagiarism:
The most intense fighting west of the Mississippi occurred along the Kansas-Missouri border, where the disputes that had developed between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the 1850s turned into brutal guerilla warfare.
This is good research:
According to David Emory Shi, "The most intense fighting west of the Mississippi occurred along the Kansas-Missouri border, where the disputes that had developed between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the 1850s turned into brutal guerilla warfare" (America 540).
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