Alexie: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I enjoyed Alexie's book. It wasn't my favorite, but I didn't hate it. The book itself was pretty moving; I had to skip the part about Arnold's pup and that was only in the first chapter. I was worried it wasn't going to get any better. It obviously did, of course.

I like the themes within the book. It's one of those books that can be easily taught to a younger audience because it deals with issues that can be prevalent to that younger audience, bullying being the biggest issue. This day and age, bullying is especially intense as it can now follow kids home via social media. This would be a good book for 8th and 9th graders; while it's a good book for anybody to read, 8th and 9th graders are transitioning into their high school years. Being roughly the same age as the main character adds another element to the story, as well: it allows the students reading the book to relate to Arnold on a similar level. For that reason I wouldn't recommend this book for kids much younger than Arnold. The suggested lowest age of the book is 12, and I don't think I'd go much lower than that unless I had an advanced reader who had maybe tackled material similar to this prior. The book is pretty depressing in certain parts; obviously there's Oscar, and there's Arnold's grandmother. In fact, all of the deaths that involve alcohol are pretty traumatic. While I'm always one to believe that kids shouldn't be coddled, there are lines that should be drawn, if only in sand.

All in all, this book was rather intriguing. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that it was written by a Washingtonian, of course, but beyond that, I enjoy the bildungsroman aspect of the story. Most students are teased at some point in their lives and most students have the sense of hopelessness that Arnold occasionally feels. This story is great for students to read because it can help them see that it's not always hopeless and that things will eventually get better.

Tovani: I Read It But I Don't Get It

I really enjoyed Tovani's book. It resonated with me because I could see myself in the children this book is meant to help. I've always enjoyed reading for pleasure; one summer, I can remember choosing to sit down at the library in my grandmother's town and just read all day instead of playing outside. But schooling swiftly killed my love of reading (and writing); coupled with the instant gratification of the internet, I started to loathe having to sit down and read books, especially books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. Not only did I not enjoy the story behind them or get anything out of it the author wanted me to, I didn't understand where the hell my classmates were getting any of their ideas. How are you finding these themes? What do you mean Daisy is the green light that Gatsby is seeing? And then when I finally started to develop my own theories and opinions, I was shot down and told that I was incorrect; "that's not what the author meant." Yeah? How do you know, Mr. Carroll? Did you write the book?

I like what Tovani mentions about asking questions. I think that encouraging students to ask questions, to ask their own questions, is better than just standing at the front of the classroom asking questions of your students. But if you're going to do questions, regardless who asks them, you have to be open to them. You have to be open to the answers that you might receive. When you shoot down an answer, a theory, an idea, the student loses confidence. It doesn't take much to stop students and their participation. Maybe I'm still just a bit hurt from high school, but questions don't have to be shot down. Maybe we had a strict timeline to stick to so entertaining the idea of other theories would have cut into that strict timeline. Who knows? What I do know is that I want to encourage my students to ask questions, to lead discussion, because, in the end, that's one of the only things that matters.

What Is Social Justice?

This was, admittedly, a hard assignment for me. Not hard in the sense that it was difficult to go out and find an article about social justice but hard in a sense that I harbor a bit of resentment over "social justice warriors," which are always the people that come to mind when I think of social justice.

The article I found discusses what's gone wrong with social justice in the last year. The people who are fighting so valiantly for "equality" have seemingly steamrolled any opinion that "offends" them. There was recently an incident at a college where several students were riled up over the hypothetical situation of Halloween costumes and what should be done to police students and what they chose to wear. Keep in mind, Halloween had not happened at this point; most people probably hadn't even bought their costumes yet. But a handful of students comprised an email that asked (paraphrased), "Who is going to make sure that nobody wears any offensive costumes?" The dean of students fired back an email that basically said, "I'm not sure who should police these students, but it's not going to be me."

All hell broke loose. The offended students demanded that the dean resign because they felt he had not handled the situation with tact. And maybe he didn't. But these are college students. College students who, literally, screamed in this man's face and wouldn't let him get a word in edge wise about why he didn't want to police a bunch of adults. Because that's not what you do. You don't tell people they can't wear something because it offends you. That goes against every single thing every social justice warrior stands for. Maybe I'm just jaded. Maybe I've just been told that I'm offending people because I use the wrong gender for them one too many times. One of the only girls who would let the dean get a word in responded to the dean, telling him, in so many words, that things that needed policing were things that offended her. I can assure you, she gets offended by a lot of things.

Our children needn't be coddled. There's a real world after high school and, seemingly unknown to some college students, after college as well. You can't be offended by everything. I'm not saying that a teacher needs to be at the front of the class dropping racial slurs into the conversation; flat out, that's wrong and that's not at all what I mean. People who get offended because you don't know that they subscribe to different pronouns than what they look like? Slow it down. Hate is bred; it is learned. The hate that social justice warriors have for everybody outside of their cause is ridiculous.

Social justice is not making sure everybody is equal and on a level playing field; it's making sure that everybody can be on the field in the first place.