I am always behind in my reading, so today, I finally picked up the Winter 2017 edition of . The issue鈥檚 theme is 鈥淪tory and the Development of Moral Character,鈥� and it begins with the printed words of Jandy Nelson鈥檚 2015 ALAN Workshop Keynote Address.
I need to stop here and say that I hope you鈥檝e heard of (the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE), NCTE鈥檚 first assembly and the sponsor of that on the Monday and Tuesday after the 起点传媒Annual Convention each year. 聽If you teach adolescents, you鈥檒l want to, and if you鈥檙e lucky, one day you鈥檒l be able to join 499 other book and author loving English teachers for the ALAN Workshop, schmooze with YA Authors, and build your muscles carrying that 40-pound box of YA books you鈥檒l receive.
But back to Jandy Nelson who started off her address by explaining 鈥渢his belief I have that English teachers are our contemporary shamans: the wakers of sleeping souls, the planters of dreams in heads, the imparters of some of life鈥檚 most valuable gifts: compassion, empathy, humanity, ambiguity, wonder, joy.鈥� She went on to describe a few of her own deep learning experiences with English teachers.
There was her 14th year of
鈥淢an鈥檚 Inhumanity to Man鈥濃�ooks that explored genocide, poverty, oppression, racism, human cruelty and brutality, existential angst, social alienation, loneliness, moral bankruptcy, spiritual impoverishment鈥�
鈥淎udre Lorde said, 鈥楾he Learning process is something you can incite, literally, incite, like a riot.鈥� This is what happened that year. We read and talked and disagreed, and the world, so very much world, began to shake inside us as we found our humanity in all this inhumanity, found empathy and compassion, found moral compasses, as we learned to hold history accountable, to hold the newspaper headlines accountable, to hold each other accountable. And all this in English class, not at home, not at church or temple or mosque, but from reading novels with Ms. W. In one year, she turned us into thinkers. I began to understand reading and writing as a revolution, thinking as being a profoundly active verb. I began to understand that a person writing quietly in a room might be burning down the world. And then rebuilding it, word by word, into something magnificent.鈥�
Words worth contemplating this week before , and all the weeks of your years as shamans for students preK-16+.
By the way, please enjoy (and others) of The Alan Review. To read the full and future issues, .