On Donald Trump's Persistent Intrusions into my Classroom
But these familiar cycles of outrage and ridicule are actually symptomatic of a privileged distance from these toxic, racist attacks. That grim fear that settles on us all is a constant reality for those directly and persistently targeted by the rising tide of xenophobic, especially islamophobic, rhetoric, for which Trump is merely a figurehead. We don't tend to associate this virulent, even violent, islamophobia with places like Philadelphia, a large, progressive, East Coast city with a substantial and vibrant Muslim population, but when racism is validated and normalized in the national discourse, it can embolden individuals to act on their prejudice (like this vandalizing of a North Philly mosque), making an otherwise tolerant community feel unsafe for entire populations.
Current Events and Community Solidarity
The meeting began with a panel of Muslim students, each of whom addressed the room of their peers. Most shared a little information about Islam, expressing frustration at both those who commit acts of violence in its name and those who intentionally conflate extremism with the Islam peacefully practiced by over one billion Muslims around the world. Most jarringly, though, every student who spoke shared an experience of a time they were discriminated against, harassed, or made to feel unwelcome or unsafe by individuals prejudiced against their religious beliefs. One student, when she was walking home from her Elementary school was told "Go home, you terrorist" (the incident occurred in the neighborhood she was born and raised in). Another student observed, "One of the main things I find ironic about being called a terrorist [is] you're always the one ending up scared." But this meeting not only benefited our non-Muslim students, who gained insight into the faith and struggles of their peers, but also those Muslim students who spoke (and those who didn't) who learned that their school community was behind them. One student expressed his appreciation of the event: "to have a room full of people who actually listen is not something you get every day. So that's cool."
Cycles of Meaning
As I mentioned in the very beginning of this post, I encourage connections between the "real world" and the literary worlds we explore in my classroom. I believe that the power of English class lies in this act: a reader is situated between the real and a literary counterargument to the real. No narrative can exist in a vacuum, so situating the experience of literary worlds within the real world allows students to make meaning that has implications for their own unfolding stories. It allows lessons, truths, and big ideas to pass between the real and the read, and forces them to be refined in the process.
In "On the Relevance of Literature to Life," Meijer asserts that meaning is made in the exploration of this clashing of the reader's world and the world of the text:
Reading is all about the interplay between the world of the text and the world of the reader. Readers wander back and forth within the text, but in that very process elements of their own world-view come into play and are playfully manipulated. Experienced readers will realize that alternative readings are possible and even that, ultimately, all closure, in reading as well as in life, is at odds with the unavoidable openness of the future and therefore with historicity. (572-573)
It is for this reason that I am so fascinated with the role of complementary text pairings (such as current events) in the ELA classroom. Making connections between alternative worlds is a first step in identifying shared "big ideas," and using one perspective to problematize, or critically interrogate, another. I can't know whether or not their literary experiences led students to attend and participate in this meeting, but I do know I saw several of my students were there and that this experience, to some degree, shaped who they are and how they approach the written word. As my student teaching continues, I will hope to feed into this cycle of interpretation that will make reading a rich and vital process of self-reflection.
Islamophobia and Night : Students Making Connections
There was no better way to learn [about the holocaust] than first hand from a victim. It is valuable to read so that we aren't so blind to things that happened before. Also with current events: Mr. Trump is trying to ban all Muslims from the US and that is very similar to the events in Night. | My thoughts about the novel and perspective on the Holocaust itself has also changed because it relates to modern culture. Today's Islamophobia and killings of black people really connects to the Holocaust, which made me more interested in the story of Night. |
Wilna A. J. Meijer (2002) On the Relevance of Literature to Life: The Significance of the Act of Reading, The European Legacy, 7:5, 567-577.