Key phrases I learned from his video, ones I knew, and all of them I need to share with students:
Ideological fragment: Dr. Cruz explores how a piece of media can be an ideological fragment, meaning a piece or artifact that represents an larger ideology (belief system).
Yes, I did Venmo him some cash for his content. You should, too.
Now, next school year when I provide instruction on analyzing media (literature, poetry, videos, etc.) and through the lens of facts, opinions, and truth, as well as poetry instruction (revised from Mud & Ink) What an amazing #mentortext to discuss our purposes for analyzing and discussing the media we consume.
Great question from Twitter this past week, wondering about witches in literature. This is far from an exhaustive list, and any others you’ve come across please comment and share! The study of witches in history is a study of misogyny, feminism, politics, patriarchy and power. It may include the creation stories where childbirth comes from armpits and Lilith rejects Adam.
I wonder if @mrskellylove has some suggestions? (Didn’t I see lots of fabulous witchcraft on your goodreads?)
— christy mcguire #AntiRacismIsAVerb (@mnemognose) October 22, 2021
Thinking about this topic is an avocation for me: when I was sixteen (remember, long before the internet…in a galaxy far, far away) reading about the Salem Witch Trials and wondered are there actual witches, and what might they say? I looked up witches in the yellow pages, (an ancient grimoire of slick ink on cheap, thin yellow paper full of names and places), and found my way to an occult shop in downtown Denver. The women were incredibly nice, just explained Wiccan and its tenants. They didn’t try to “convert” me– it was educational and calm. That was forty-one years ago, and to this day I’ve kept their advice with me: don’t harm to others. And being a lifelong feminist, this amateur pursuit of this archetype is one of my passions.
Books and Texts
This is a curated list of texts I’ve read or are on my #TBR list:
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici
Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies (The American Social Experience Book 19)
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French) Paperback – February 5, 2009
Media, Tropes, and Archetypes
Film and television have no shortage of witches. However, consider some other representations of witches, like the Mean Girl or the Cool Girl. Here are some examples of literal witches (Practical Magic and Witches of Eastwick were novels before they were movies) and not-so-literal, like the Mean Girl story. Witches typically come in groups of three and then a fourth is added, and causes chaos and imbalance.
Witches in Art
This was curated by @kasbahsalome; there are many more than this, of course. I chose these for literary connections as well as more modern pieces.
William Blake: The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy (sometimes referred to as Triple Hecate)
Paul Devaux: At the Door
Henri Fuseli – Macbeth, Banquo and the Witches, c. 1793
Francisco De Goya: Witches Flight: this paininting is also a prop in the show The Order
John William Waterhouse: Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
Leonora Carrington: The Revival of the Witch as a Muse
Remedios Varo: Witch Going to the Sabbath
Three Women Plucking Mandrakes by Robert Bateman
There is no “ready-to-go” lesson here– but some things you might want to put together depending on what texts you’re teaching — if you’re teaching Macbeth witches play a starring role, and examing the archetype across time and cultures may lead to some rich conversations. Also, The Crucible by Arther Miller demands a clear need for understanding this archeypte, and Tituba’s story through racism and misogynoir.
We never know where our curiousity will lead us. For example, I played an owl I recorded in my backyard over a year ago, and a student told me about La Lechuzas, (little owls) who are disguised witches. Enjoy putting your own lesson together, and have no fear!
Postscript: Hansel and Gretel is really about parents giving their children permission to fend for themselves.
Over the decade of playing World of Warcraft ™ I’ve run across a few allusions to other works in literature, music, and the arts. For fun (!) I thought I’d do some research into how many allusions appear in Azeroth.
In a region called Bastion, which is full of angels and paragons, (it’s a little creepy, quite frankly), one of the NPC dialogues is “clear skies, full hearts, can’t lose” which I immediately recognized as a Friday Night Lights line, though I haven’t seen a single episode. I’m not a football person. How did I know it was from that show? Because popular culture exacts a toll. One of my colleagues used it on T-shirts or something for students. We know things in the moment because it’s collectively shared or shoved. I think of the groundlings in Shakespeare’s audience chatting around the village wells sharing one-liners and bawdy jokes from the plays. It was entertainment. And I realized most stories and series I watch are based on Bible stories. No one can convince me that Better Call Saul isn’t grounded in Cain and Abel. And I’m not even a Christian church person.
And I need to think more about this. Recently, #DisruptTexts was attacked. That aggression will not stand, man. I’m thinking of the disingenuous argument that people won’t know where ideas, references or allusions come from unless we muddle through language that’s over 500 years old. Yes, novels that continue to be taught do provide a cultural reference point. But whose culture? What reference point? Yeah, you know who. Allow me some time to ponder this, and work with some amazing women I know.
Districts and English departments are scrambling for “diverse” books–while some of us have been doing this work, time to continue and support.
I’m going into year 15 next school year, and during this time I can vouch that I continue to seek answers and strive to be a better teacher for my students. This is built on my master’s thesis, which was using engaging children’s literature–I contend this was a solid foundation for my practice. But I’m out of patience waiting for others to catch up. And I’ve encountered this request and steerage multiple times. I’m not a patient person by nature anyway, or so I’ve been told by a friend. It would be my life lesson. I’m beginning to think patience, when it comes to children and education, is highly overrated and is not, as painted, a virtue, but a sin.
We don’t have years to wait. We shouldn’t have to wait months. If you are a content creator, this is your warning. Think about your books. Blog posts. Tpt products. Go back w your new lens. What should go or be revised? And how can you be transparent about that process? https://t.co/gB0soHTklT
— Adrienne Brandenburg (@AdrienneBranden) June 22, 2020
I would add that I am here for any conversation about books, novels, problematic texts, and the approved “canon.” Districts and district leadership: I beseech you: do not make it so difficult to get great literature written by BIPOC writers in our classrooms. We don’t have time to wait.
1/Having been forced to teach it (or lose my job), I can say that this has given me a lot of thought.
White teachers: if you’re not forced to teach these texts, what reasons do you have to justify this?
I read a Tweet yesterday about “canceling Lincoln.” No one is ‘canceling Lincoln.’ But I am asking teachers to do a much better job and overhaul the curriculum and framing of the Civil War.
Here are some links from the school year 2018-2019 (8th grade Humanities) and Zinn Education Resources:
Teachers: I used this document as a shared reading piece. The students came to their own conclusions: no, Lincoln did not free the slaves.
This thread by Jared Yates Sexton is also a good place to start with thinking about Lincoln’s role and shifts in philosophy.
Even as Lincoln worked to abolish slavery, he was meeting with luminaries like Frederick Douglass and telling them he didn’t believe white and black people could live together.
Douglass shocked him by telling him freed slaves just wanted to be Americans.
In 1865, Black people all over the South were saying this Union officials: Do not abolish slavery and leave us landless and disenfranchised. Do not force us to work for our former masters and call that freedom. Do not allow the law replace the master. 1/3
Contextual framing is required for teaching our history. We must teach the concepts of paradoxes, of conflict, and abstract thinking skills so students, and us teachers, too, can hold conflicting thoughts, ideas, and facts in our minds in order to construct a broader, more accurate view of history. This is the challenge in our times of transactional, binary “leadership” and thinking. We think in terms of winners and losers, and we must move and evolve to consider what harm is caused, consequences, and how fear, greed, culture and needs impact us.
This is one of the most critical think pieces on education I’ve read in a long time, published in Medium by Lisa Kelly.
A moderate teacher often uses the rhetoric of maintaining high standards without interrogating themselves —holding students to high standards of what? As my comrade G.T. Reyes wrote, “Educators …if you’re still asking about how to “hold students accountable,” I would suggest you first ask yourself — accountable to what? This might sound crazy to some of you, but maybe you are wanting students to be accountable to learn their place within white supremacist, capitalist schooling.” Many credentialing programs teach that it is racist to expect that black and brown children are less capable than white children, which is absolutely true. However, this doesn’t mean that the solution is to expect any student to reproduce capitalism or whiteness.
From school uniforms to accountability, how white teachers continue to uphold white supremacy and colonialism comes in wave after wave. During this time of emergency remote learning and teaching, the number of teachers who are aghast at students turning in blank documents (they did this before, by the way), terrified of students cheating, not being accountable, on and on and on…ladies: you are exhausting. And students continue to act like, well, students. The cat and mouse game of “gotcha” is part of the teacher-student dynamic: but does it have to be?
The first answer that comes to my mind would be — schooling that is centered on relationships. Not relationships that are about getting kids to like you enough to want to produce for you. But relationships built on understanding the unique humanity and the community that each child brings to education.
Every year, sometimes at several check points, I give students surveys to express and provide confidential opinions on my teaching, what they liked, what they wish would change, etc. And overarching themes emerge: they want to wear what they want, and learn about things that will empower them in the moment, in an unknown future, and that feel relevant and worth their time. (Gee, almost like this generation understands existential crisis or something.)
As I continue to grow as an educator, I am mindful that I will always need to push against racist ideas and bias. I am fortunate to have a spot on the Wednesday webinars with Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi on their collaborative book, Stamped. I am going to ask my admin if we can use this as a book study for next year: if not the entire staff, then perhaps my immediate ELA colleagues would be interested.The essential piece of all this is as we’re reimagining schools, beware of who’s trying to hold teachers “accountable” and who is building authentic relationships. Those people service in complicity to hold teachers and students accountable, too. Look for those who include teachers’ and students’ voices, who have experience in making those connections. We cannot underestimate the danger we’re in right now. And personally I am struggling to hold onto hope. As the person said in Samantha Bee’s video, I now consider myself to be, as Meehan Crist quotes, an “Undefeated Despair.”
Keep focused: what brings us to teaching, what brings children to learning, and what are the most critical things to teach? That’s it. I am thinking about entire semester of simply reading critically for argument and bias, and how to have fluency and accuracy in detecting bias and agendas. Looking forward to digging into this resource, too: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/
My next projects include Greek Mythology with my Box of Destiny materials, and perhaps other units of study, such as Thesis Writing 101 and Thematic Discussions, and curated content about one or two big questions. Stay tuned!
I remember how during sophomore year, my English class read Night by Elie Wiesel while we learned about the Holocaust in World History. After we finished the book, we read the author’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. I don’t remember the exact words, but I remember how he said something about how if people don’t speak out when something wrong is happening—wherever in the world—they’re helping whoever is committing that wrong by allowing it to happen. Our class discussed the idea, and almost everyone agreed with it, even me. At least, we said we did. Never mind the fact we all knew most of us didn’t even say shit when we saw someone slap the books out of a kid’s hands in the hallway. In fact, the most outspoken supporter of the idea during the discussion was a kid who did that kind of dumb stuff all the time and thought it was hilarious.
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
One of the countries I know little about is the Philippines, and I’m ashamed of this. The only thing I was aware of is the death toll from Duterte’s dictatorship, a man our current “president” admires. Well, makes sense: both are vile, sexual predators with a knack for domestic terrorism. My former student teacher, L, family is from the Philippines, as are over a hundred thousand in Washington State, and during the election year her fears for her family for supporting Tr*** were well founded. In other words: there are a lot of parallels.
But we all know these aren’t abstract headlines: the terror they inflict and promote affects our students’ lives in concrete and harmful ways. However, I am not a spoiler: so no more plot points, or character analysis. I will leave you to enjoy this masterful novel. What I will do, though, is gather and curate some of the other art and poetry mentioned in the novel, so if you decide to add this to your classroom library, these resources will be available:
Artwork:
The Spoilarium by Juan Luna, 1884, National Museum of Fine Arts, Manila
For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in our children’s mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours;
