I struggle with where to begin to convey my response to Push. I, like Audra, seemed to be traveling the continuum of aesthetic and efferent reading. But I found that whenever I began to think about my own role as a teacher, my emotions inevitably pulled me back to Precious. Now that I reflect, the differences between reading this book and the mostly efferent readings of graduate school seem to jump out at me. For one, in Push, I never seemed to look at what page number I was on, or how many pages I had left to go. I just read. Secondly, my mind seemed to escape into moments of thinking of my own student whose name is Precious, thinking of another student who had a baby at 13 after a rape, thinking of how and why a world could be so cruel, and thinking of the resilience and perserverence it takes to live a life like Precious' and how anger and pain manifests itself in the classroom. I thought and built connections, but never once did this break my concentration of what I was reading. Instead, it appeared to all be happening at once.
Yet, I wonder: How would this experience have been different if I knew I was going to be tested on my reading? It's almost like school can, at times, put shackles on our minds rather than freeing them to think and travel down their own path.
3 comments:
Yet, I wonder: How would this experience have been different if I knew I was going to be tested on my reading? It's almost like school can, at times, put shackles on our minds rather than freeing them to think and travel down their own path.
Nice point. I have to admit that I did read this book differently (knowing it was going to be something I'd blog about and have a conversation about in class) than I would have if I'd been reading it on my own. I think my reading was more careful because I knew I'd be "doing something" with it, besides have the feelings of living through it.
I thought and built connections, but never once did this break my concentration of what I was reading. Instead, it appeared to all be happening at once.
This was me as well, moving through the book was difficult, but not becuase of my shift in stances. In that way, the read was smooth, I read it in one sitting.
The thought that others would read my blog constrained my writing more than my reading of "Push" I can have my aesthetic response and keep it seperate from my assignment. It is how I made it through two English degrees; I played the game and kept the books to myself.
Post a Comment