The Challenges of Teaching Native American Literature
It was very interesting to read the English Journal article, "The Way to Confusion," about the teacher who is trying so hard to do a good job teaching Native American literature.
I think that as this unit is progressing everyone is starting to see just why this is such a good topic for English 4800 -- teaching Native American literature raises many very difficult, complex, and controversial questions. It is hard to know how to do it well and hard even to know how to approach the subject!
I do appreciate that the teacher, Gary McLaughlin, wants to teach Native American literature, but, honestly, I was not really blown away by his methods. I don't think you simply solve the problems by only making the reading individual and not addressing, as a class, any texts in common or any of the issues involved. He seems to think that is the way to avoid controversy.
I don't think that the point is to become an expert on every Native American group -- something he is right to say that would be impossible, but what about becoming a bit more informed about one or more Native American group.
The issue is to understand the contexts of Native American literature and to involve authentic Native American voices in the classroom.
With that in mind, I wonder why there seems to be no examination of the history of Native Americans, no look the story of Native American and EuroAmerican interaction, no consideration of Native American life in the present, no direct study of stereotypes and fake representations of Native Americans in Mr. McLaughlin's class.
He tells us at the outset that many of the students in his school are Native American, but then this fact simply seems to disappear in his article. What happened to this kids? What about their world, their culture, their parents and grand parents? Are their lives allowed to become a focus in school? A source that the other kids could learn from?
Mr. McLaughlin seems to be a bit more bound up in his own frustration and in the sense of hostility toward the experts he meets at NCTE, than in really learning more both about the topic at hand and from the appparently interesting community in which he teaches.
Well, maybe he never had a class like 4800...
I think that as this unit is progressing everyone is starting to see just why this is such a good topic for English 4800 -- teaching Native American literature raises many very difficult, complex, and controversial questions. It is hard to know how to do it well and hard even to know how to approach the subject!
I do appreciate that the teacher, Gary McLaughlin, wants to teach Native American literature, but, honestly, I was not really blown away by his methods. I don't think you simply solve the problems by only making the reading individual and not addressing, as a class, any texts in common or any of the issues involved. He seems to think that is the way to avoid controversy.
I don't think that the point is to become an expert on every Native American group -- something he is right to say that would be impossible, but what about becoming a bit more informed about one or more Native American group.
The issue is to understand the contexts of Native American literature and to involve authentic Native American voices in the classroom.
With that in mind, I wonder why there seems to be no examination of the history of Native Americans, no look the story of Native American and EuroAmerican interaction, no consideration of Native American life in the present, no direct study of stereotypes and fake representations of Native Americans in Mr. McLaughlin's class.
He tells us at the outset that many of the students in his school are Native American, but then this fact simply seems to disappear in his article. What happened to this kids? What about their world, their culture, their parents and grand parents? Are their lives allowed to become a focus in school? A source that the other kids could learn from?
Mr. McLaughlin seems to be a bit more bound up in his own frustration and in the sense of hostility toward the experts he meets at NCTE, than in really learning more both about the topic at hand and from the appparently interesting community in which he teaches.
Well, maybe he never had a class like 4800...
posted by Allen Webb at 10:44 AM
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