This week's Cultural Studies reading spoke to me in meaningful ways. It does seem that a Cultural Studies element should exist in a composition classroom. Both as a way to allow more students to connect to the course and as a way to keep composition relevant as the world's texts move forward at a rapid rate. One of the passages that had me nodding me head in agreement and saying "YES" loudly as I read in a Starbucks was "treating popular texts as if they merited the same degree of attention and appreciation of canonical texts" (99). This got to me because in my real life as a High School English teacher, the CANON is akin to the holy Bible, but it is problematic to me because a majority of canonical texts are written by Dead White Guys, and were placed in the CANON by, you know, other Dead White Guys. As education desires inclusion, and as colleges admit a more diverse population, sticking to texts written by Dead White Guys presents a multitude of issues.
When popular texts are given the same weight as canonical texts, it allows for professors to find texts that represent the widening student body, and find texts to which young people can connect. As someone who tried to teach The Scarlet Letter two years in a row, I can tell you that the themes and ideas in that text were big hits with my students, but the book itself was mostly unread. What good does it do a teacher/professor to assign texts to be read, if a majority of students refuse to read it or simply cannot read it. In my teaching of that book, I had to find articles, videos, audio, blog posts, etc on the same subject to help guide my students along.
Another important reason for Cultural Studies to have influence over a composition course that goes along with the passage I posted, is that it redefines the power structure, which is something about which I am passionate. The Straight White Male perspective has long been the default perspective, and it is long due for a change. By incorporating a wide variety of texts for students to read, and by being more inclusive in general, it gives the diverse population of students more of a chance to experience different perspectives. By showing our students inclusive voices, it opens up their own abilities to express themselves in unique ways.
In the AP Literature course I am currently teaching, I find myself increasingly frustrated that a majority of the recommended texts are written by Dead White Guys. Because I want my students to be as prepared as possible, I am teaching 5 major texts from Dead White Guys, but also 1 major text from a woman, and 2 major texts from People of Color. Also, 90% of the poetry we go over is written from someone other than a Dead White Guy. As a student of AP Literature I read pretty much only canonical works and it was not until college that my eyes were opened to a wider variety of texts. I do not want my students to go away to college only having the Dead White Guy perspective. It is imperative on me to help students disrupt the power structure in all texts.
Hey Kyle,
ReplyDeleteGreat synthesizing and connection to the real classroom situation.
Just something I thought I would mention in response to your post.
Upon starting my career as an instructor, I was super eager to try out new readings out of the ordinary "Dead White Men" series that are typically assigned in public schools today. Except I tried that with the ESL class I taught at Sacramento Food Bank. My class consisted mainly of Latinos and Arabic men. I gave them a short article that included a gay couple as the protagonist. They had to write a response about the characters' inner conflicts. Instead, all I read about in their papers was disgust and condemnation for the characters.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that cultural differences must be taken into account much heavier than some other differences. I was teaching an ESL class so maybe something so controversial was not the smartest move but I took a risk and lost.