Harry Potter Makes Us Smart!

Lupin and Tonks, by kiwikewte,

available at deviantart.com

I had an interesting discussion with a fellow educator today. I was expressing my happiness that it was nearly July and I would be able to read the last Harry Potter book (please don't kill Lupin!). This lovely woman rolled her eyes. I asked her why my reading habits should make her so aghast, and she informed me that it wasn't me, it was the students. She is apparently a seventh grade language arts teacher, and she is not happy with Harry Potter. She disapproves of her students reading Harry Potter (and Twilight and Eragon) because she feels they should be reading the "classics."

So I, ever the protagonist, asked her what "classics" these seventh graders should be reading instead of the fantasy novels we were discussing. She suggested The Call of the Wild, Beloved, Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, and well, there were more, but when she started listing existential literature I stopped paying attention. I agree that [most of] these books are good to have read, but at age 13?

I do not understand why it is better to read a book that you are too young to enjoy than it is to read one that is on level that still makes you think. I have students ask me all the time what words out of these fantasy books mean. They want to talk about what happened and what is going to happen. They are building their vocabulary and their intuition skills. Because, after all, don't we just want to know who dies?

This teacher said one thing in parting, "Don't get me started on Lemony Snicket." I nearly fell over. When I first started reading the series, it was simply to keep up with my students. Then I became hooked. These books use a high level vocabulary that, through the narrator's style, gets taught and not just used! Also, the books always deal with complex themes that are rarely seen in young adult literature. The final book The End, had a theme of the conflict that exists between a desire for knowledge and a desire for protection. Not to mention it had one of the most poignant, sophisticated ending I have had the pleasure of reading (I won't give it away).

Am I the only one that thinks these books are worth reading, even as "adults?" Do they really have no place with the "real" literature?

What Are We Teaching Children?

Each moment we live never was before and will never be again. And yet what we teach children in school is 2 + 2 = 4 and Paris is the capital of France. What we should be teaching them is what they are. We should be saying: ‘Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the world, there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child exactly like you. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel.

--Pablo Casals (cellist)

I am going to assume that you do not know who Pablo Casals is, as I did not. He was a preeminent Spanish Cellist that moved to France because of Francisco Franco. He would not even play in countries that recognized the Spanish government. He is most recognized for his recording of Bach: Cello Suites. He died in 1973.

10 Things I Learned This Week

I just got back from the NC Arts Educators Conference, cutely labeled: North Carolina: The State of the Arts, a statewide conference addressing the arts in 21st century education.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I don't have any idea what that means! So, without further ado, the top 10 things I learned while hanging out with arts educators (in a particular order, but not one having to do with rank):

1. When they say "arts," they mean visual arts, dance, music, and theater arts. I had never thought about anyone but the cool kids (visual arts). Seriously. My eyes have been opened to the need for theater arts in our school. I feel that if the kids want dance, they can take spanish (our spanish teacher makes the kids dance each semester: this semester is the cha-cha). Where have our Cary Grants and Audrey Hepburns gone?

2. As of 2000, 68% of middle and elementary schools pull students out of their electives to participate in remediation. I imagine this number has risen in the past seven years. This is sad. It is no wonder that discipline problems rise every year when kids are removed from the classes that allow them to think creatively and placed into classes that make them do WORKSHEETS.

3. The state of California began training their middle and elementary school math teachers in techniques to integrate math and art. The students that received the benefits of this training saw their math scores double. These results align with other, smaller studies. Basically, integration WORKS!

4. I had to make a list of all of the teachers in my school that were integrating other subjects with theirs, and I realized that there are a lot of teachers in my school that are well on their way to integration. I think we just need to do it better. There is a big difference between integration and enhancement. I know I am guilty of simply teaching the math as a means to an end. It was put very simply to me this weekend: good integration involves the math getting better with art AND the art getting better with math.

5. Socrates was the originator of the dreaded "essential question." He was sentenced to death by hemlock (a lovely drink) for corrupting the youth of Athens.

6. Arts educators are predominately female. This means that, as a rule, they do not care about the Final Four and they do not understand why one would watch PTI. I quote "Those two aren't even cute." That, my dear ladies, is that Around the Horn is for. These ladies are also predominately older and do not want to join you on a morning run, but do want to lament how crazy you are.

7. Over 1/3 of the arts administrators will be leaving their positions for retirement or another career in the next 5 years. The problem is that there are no young people coming behind them to fill these positions.

8. The world education conference (it had a better name than that, but I have forgotten it and I did not write it down!) stated that they had three goals for educating their children: literacy, numeracy, and creativity. World leaders (not the US, so much) have come out repeatedly as saying that the most important trait their children need is creativity. With the globablization of the world, creativity is going to be needed to solve the new problems of an interdependent market.

9. Art is listed as a core subject in NCLB. Intriguingly, foreign language is not.

10. Title I money is only 7% of each school's budget.

The Ethicality of Grade Changing

So here's my view on middle school art grading--it should be simple enough to pass. You come to class, don't be a jerk, do a half decent job at your work, and you'll pull out a B. So, it goes to say, I do not have any qualms failing those who need failing. I take a weird, sinister joy in it--it's like pointing out the kids who will be making my burritos at Taco Bell.

However, I am at a moral impasse this quarter. I have this student--let's call her Wanda--and Wanda was absent the first two weeks of my class due to the law giving her an extended vacation from school. She returned and proceeded to show her butt and generally be a non-happy person. However, in the past two weeks, she has done a complete turnaround. Wanda is doing her work, laughing, and contributing to class. She even suggested coloring her tessellation with purple and yellow because they are complementary colors! My soul smiled then. :) She EVEN recycled today!!!

So here come my ethics. I think Wanda needs to see a passing on her report card so that she doesn't lose hope that she can change, but there is no logical way for her to have brought her 25 up to passing! I am faced with simply changing her grade to a C- and dealing with my qualms or not and dealing with a backslide in effort and behavior.

This change is not a policy change I am ready to make across the board, and if I will not make it across the board, why would I make it for Wanda? That answer is fairly simple. Wanda is what middle school is about. As a fellow teacher has told me "You have to be there to catch them when they fall and then help lift them back up." Wanda is ready to be lifted.

1.75 years as a teacher and already I sound like one of those corny books. Save me, Lava Lamp Robot!