In the story the “Accomplice,” at first it was very strange to have this teacher, Ms. Hemple, giving a book with so much profanity in it. This seemed very inappropriate to me. Considering all the other books out there, why did this one have to get picked? So I guess at first glance at Ms. Hemple, one might think that she is crazy.
But when talking to my wife about the story and if she would accept the book like many of the other parents did, ironically, my wife agreed with it. But it depends on the purpose of what the teacher is trying to teach and if this book necessary to teach that. Maybe what the kids need are books like this that grip them of the reality of life. Ms. Hemple seems to want to teach the kids to break traditional ideas that maybe held by their parents from another generation. So in prescribing this book, the kids where very interested in it so maybe she wasn’t crazy but ingenious.
I think you are right in saying that it doesn't seem "crazy" for a middle school teacher to assign a text with profanity in it as long as they can provide a justification for it, which Ms. Hempel does. It seems as though she wants to assign students something that is more on their level and in a style they will better relate to as compared to a more traditional text.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have seen you expand this post a bit more, perhaps giving other examples relating to whether Ms. Hempel is crazy or ingenious. Really push yourself to conduct a thorough analysis in each blog post.