Reading and Writing are Essential in Our Classrooms

In the article “The Dark Night of the Soul,” By Richard E. Miller, I understand what this author is trying to convey about reading and writing in the classroom, however, I am not sure I agree.   I believe much of the killings taking place in and out of our schools occur because of something much deeper than reading and writing.  Reading and writing are essential and does create deeper reflection about who we are in our society.  Yet just like anything presented to us, some will be effect and others will not.  There are always going to be people who go through the motion as students, disregarding the lessons being communicated.  Then there are others who will genuinely benefit from what is being taught in the classroom.   Pat Schroader argues that children isolate themselves from the world and get over-involved in the magic of technology instead of connecting with others in the real world.  However, as Miller points out these boys who masterminded the shooting spree at Columbine, were very connected to the world. He states,

 Harris and Kldebold, in fact wrote and produced for all different sorts of media, they read a range of material that supported their beliefs, and that taught them how /to put together their incendiary devices; they hung out with like-minded individuals and discussed their ideas.  They rely on writing to post their scathing observations about their peers on Harris’s Website; they composed poems in their creative writing class that their teacher described as “dark and sad”; they created a video for a class project in which they acted out their fantasy of moving through the school gunning down their tormentors.” He ends the paragraph with, ‘They read, they wrote, they talked. And in the end of the process, they tried to kill everyone they could.” 

These boys were connected to the world, but a world very different from our own.  And I think this same statement can be made for many of these young killers in the article.  For teachers to now doubt the presents of reading, writing and great literature in the classrooms because they believe it is not making a difference, would be committing the ultimate crime.  Unfortunately, the problem with these young killers has nothing to do with reading and writing in the classroom. In my opinion, their problems stem much deeper within them.  As discouraging as it must be for teachers to feel their efforts are meaningless, we must continue to expose and motivate students through literature.  Just imagine where we would be as a society without the many great readings and writings create in our culture.  These readings give us meaning into other societies and help us aspirer to be better people – sadly, there will be some we can never reach.

Lucinda

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Richard E. Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”

I found this article to be extremely interesting. Miller had so many things to say and I want to point them out. He talks about the tragedy of Columbine and poses the question,

What legal or educational response could be equal to the challenge of controlling the behavior of so many students from such varied backgrounds?

Looking at all the cases Miller mentioned, plus the Virginia Tech incident, it is obvious that each case and each student is different. The similarity though is the fact that in every case there seemed to be OBVIOUS clues to how demented these students were. The poetry, the websites, the writing some students turned in for classes, the histories of mental disturbances. Every time this happens, it seems like a red flag should have been thrown long before the incident occurred but NO ONE noticed. To me, the educational response should be that teachers, administrators, and all faculty in general in a school should report anything unusual about a student right away. Why do we wait until Virginia Tech happens to say, wow that kid WAS disturbed. His writing WAS demented. He DID have mental problems. They knew all this and yet they did NOTHING.

Now in the one teacher’s defense, she did report that Virginia Tech student’s writing, but nothing was done past that.

Going back to Miller, he adds a journal entry from one Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters. To view the quote, go here and go down to the second page on the right. In it, Harris talks about how no one but him and the other student should be blamed. He says the school administration is doing a good job and he doesn’t want anything to change. But my question is, are schools really doing that good of a job or protecting students?

I mean look at what happened this week at Rowan. Even with extra security on campus for the homecoming events, we still lost one of fellow students in a brutal mugging.

Later on, Miller states:

If you’re in the business of teachings others how to read and write with care, there’s no escaping the sense that your labor is increasingly irrelevant.

As a Elementary Ed and Writing Arts major, this is a scary thought. I am going to school for just that reason. So is my job going to be a waste of time? Or is Miller just pointing out the fact that reading and writing will not change the psychotic students of the world?

This is a big problem we have to face. I will leave you with the question that Miller posed at the end of his article. He leaves us to wonder:

Is there any way to justify or explain a life spent working with – and teaching others to work with – texts?

~Meg

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