I used this article with great success in my class last night. Sadly, it’s sort of a novel concept — how do the books you read shape who you are — but the conversation about language also fueled a good conversation.

Kakutani quotes James Baldwin:

Language is both “a political instrument, means, and proof of power,” and “the most vivid and crucial key to identity: it reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.”

No better place to start a course on literacy and adolescence, on pedagogy and schools…

What song best represents Tuesday and the election; lots of folks have identified various versions of A Change is Gonna Come…great song even if folks know it best from American karaoke.

For some reason, I think this Bob Dylan song gets it best, particularly for those who’ve waited. It’s as much the sound of the song as it as the lyrics…

The ocean wild like an organ played,
The seaweed’s wove its strands.
The crashin’ waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself ‘neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

I stood unwound beneath the skies
And clouds unbound by laws.
The cryin’ rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself ‘neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

I watched the inauguration with my four year old and nine of his classmates in a faded gymnasium. Three sections I hope he remembers:

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

Second section:

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

Third section:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

There’s a series of blogposts and articles about this report detailing the ways in which technology ought to be infused into higher education. I hate to sound like a luddite but as many students continue to struggle with reading complicated texts, I’m curious as to how to develop 21st century literacies, information, digital, and visual.

In other words, I would have liked to have seen more description of how technology can be used to help students read difficult works that are not available on-line. The longer I teach, the more I’m convinced that these are entirely different skill sets; I’m not sure how digital literacy helps a student deal with a complex 19th century poem or a report from a Victorian school-master.

I like watching the way Ed Reed plays and this article lays it out. Of particular interest, this Troy Polamalu quote:

“Whenever you see him have a one-interception game, it’s disappointing. ‘What happened to Ed? He only took it to the 1? He must be injured.’ I don’t think it’s athleticism that makes great plays. He’s got a football I.Q., a really instinctual way of playing the game.”

Thinking about the other game rather than another crushing Eagles loss.

Re-reading the Watchmen

Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do…

Right, so during President Bush’s last press conference, he makes the following declaration:

“It (America’s moral standing) may be damaged amongst some of the elite,” Bush replied, “but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is a country that provides such great hope.”

“You go to Africa, you ask Africans about America’s generosity and compassion; go to India and ask about . . . their view of America. Go to China and ask,” Bush went on. “Now, no question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries. Most countries in Europe listened to what 1441 said, which is disclose, disarm or face serious consequences…”

Still true? That’s the question? Or is it true, but for a dwindling number of individuals?

“I’m not chuckling about anything until there’s no seconds left on the clock.”

After McNabb’s fifteen yard unsportsmanlike penalty.

Finished this devastating book tonight.

I like this line, which is part of an overall theme he develops throughout the book about the nature of democracy:

Mary Lisa, a French teacher in a mill town who always had to go her own way, who now lives in just about the most forgotten corner of America, then managed to summon the transforming question of her culture, a land built on the revolutionary idea that the people are the sovereign, the bosses, captains of their own fate.

She said, simply, “But what do you think?”

I’m not as hopeful as he is, I guess, about the power of daylight, of honest accounting, to change our current course. Too many of the dreadful patterns created over the past eight years will be difficult to undo and politically impossible.

One last thing — I’ve read most of these books, Jane Meyer, Seymour Hirsch, etc. — and I read the Times pretty closely every day. But nearly every book offers another horrifying story I didn’t know about…dark side, indeed.

His brief description of the current president’s situation:

“A man who trusts only what he can touch placed in a realm where nothing he touches is authentic.”

Ron Suskind, The Way of the World (NY: Harper Collins, 2008), 10.