Materials for the Mission II

At Gig Harbor High School, we are relentless in the continuous pursuit of the “Vital Three”:

Relationships

Extraordinary Care

For the welfare of each student

Mentors

Guiding Lights:

The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life

http://guidinglightsnetwork.com/index.php?p=Eric+Liu&s=237

Booklist (December 1, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 7)

This book documents the stories of 15 mentors as well as the very personal journey of a former Clinton speechwriter, journalist, and author (The Accidental Asian, 1998). Two years in the researching and writing, this is a riveting analytical description of how great teachers made a difference and how they work their magic. The 15 stories are as disparate as American lives: Ivana Chubbuck, a Hollywood acting coach, who's instructed Halle Berry and Eriq LaSalle; eurhythmics teacher Bob Abramson, who helps students release their inner musician; and chef Alice Waters, of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, who gives to youngsters a real sense of what food and agriculture mean. The five common lessons that Liu extracts are, perhaps, not world shattering, but they do help define and refine what the best of mentors should be: one-on-one listeners, unblockers of barriers and negative self-images, interpreters of commingling relationships, designers of great cultures, and enablers of role switching, allowing students to experience teaching. The very worthwhile outcome of 24 months of thought and study.

Freedom Writers

http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2259975/k.BF19/Home.htm

Rigor and Relationships come together for success!

…..and all students deserve the chance.

On Friday, October 19, I took personal leave to hear Erin Gruwell speak to the Bremerton teachers (my husband’s district). It was an emotional and motivating experience. I’m not sure anything I write could express the heart and commitment of Erin and the Freedom Writers Foundation.

Not only does Erin Gruwell build empathy for her students when she speaks, she also uses empathy as a tool for reaching students and connecting them to literature and the human experience.

Reading the Diary of Anne Frank and connecting students to an understanding of the Holocaust and how this history study could relate to their lives was the starting place for their own diaries.

Zlata’s Diary was also used to connect students to other’s war experiences.

Other Readings to Encourage Empathy and Understanding

Immigration American Born Chinese

Poverty

Race and Culture

Mental Illness

Pete Earley

Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness

http://www.peteearley.com/home/

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend Pete Earley’s lecture in Bremerton sponsored by Kitsap Mental Health. His book, Crazy, was one of three up for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. Although this book was aimed toward the criminalization of the severely mentally ill, he also spoke about the difficulties we have believing that the behaviors caused by mental illness of all kinds (depression, anxiety, etc.) are arising from the illness, not personal choice.

We lock up the mentally ill because they terrify us. We are afraid of them and even more frightened of what they symbolize. We want to believe they did something that caused their insanity. That is why we can justify housing them in inhumane conditions and punishing rather than treating them. The federal government says mental illness is a chemical imbalance, and because of that it’s a sickness and not something…that anyone seeks or wants or deserves to get anymore than he seeks, wants, or deserves to get a cold.

But deep down, we don’t really want to believe that’s true. Because if we did, we would have to admit: It could happen to us….we quietly search for explanations to prove that the mentally ill really aren’t like us and they somehow deserve the torment they suffer.

p. 122

See Also: Washington Reads Spring List “Hidden People”

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/wa_reads_2007spring.aspx

New Teen Fiction:

Poverty & Loss

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

New from Sherman Alexie is a young adult book that expresses the plight of a young Native American boy growing up in poverty on “The Rez” in Spokane. It is Sherman Alexie’s most autobiographical novel to date. It is full of humor and sorrow and has been nominated for the National Book Award. As this review states (thanks to Barb for noticing this review), it is a good in to understanding the real experience of poverty, both for us and for our students:

‘Part-Time Indian’ has a hero teens will root for

There is also an example of a teacher’s lack of extraordinary care:

Then, after my fifteenth or twentieth missed day of school, I sat in my social studies classroom with Mrs. Jeremy.

Mrs. Jeremy was an old bird who’d taught at Reardan for thirty-five years.

I slumped into her class and sat in the back of the room.

“Oh, class,” she said. “We have a special guest today. It’s Arnold Spirit. I didn’t realize you still went to this school, Mr. Spirit.”

The classroom was quiet. They all knew my family had been living inside a grief-storm. And had this teacher just mocked me for that?

“What did you just say?” I asked her.

“You really shouldn’t be missing class this much,” she said.

If I’d been stronger, I would have stood up to her. I would have called her names. I would have walked across the room and slapped her.

But I was too broken.

Depression and Suicide

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Kirkus starred (September 1, 2007)

"Everything affects everything," declares Hannah Baker, who killed herself two weeks ago. After her death, Clay Jensen--who had a crush on Hannah--finds seven cassette tapes in a brown paper package on his doorstep. Listening to the tapes, Hannah chronicles her downward spiral and the 13 people who led her to make this horrific choice. Evincing the subtle--and not so subtle--cruelties of teen life, from rumors, to reputations, to rape, Hannah explains to her listeners that, "in the end, everything matters." Most of the novel quite literally takes place in Clay's head, as he listens to Hannah's voice pounding in his ears through his headphones, creating a very intimate feel for the reader as Hannah explains herself. Her pain is gut-wrenchingly palpable, and the reader is thrust face-first into a world where everything is related, an intricate yet brutal tapestry of events, people and places. Asher has created an entrancing character study and a riveting look into the psyche of someone who would make this unfortunate choice. A brilliant and mesmerizing debut from a gifted new author. (Fiction. YA)