Introduction Part One Education
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CONTENTS Rhetorical Contents xxix Preface xli Introduction 1 Why Write? 2 How to Read This Book—And an Example 7 Part One Education 19 Introduction 20 What to Do about the Schools? 24 E. B. White, EDUCATION (essay) 24 Which is better: an intimate, personalized rural school with limited facilities? or a larger urban school with all the modern touches? Paul E. Peterson, A LIBERAL CASE FOR VOUCHERS (essay) 26 “Given the potential of vouchers to achieve more racial and socioeconomic diversity in education, . you’d think more liberals would be open to experimenting with them.” Martin Carnoy, DO SCHOOL VOUCHERS IMPROVE SCHOOL PERFORMANCE? (essay) 31 A response to Paul Peterson: “It is difficult to un- derstand the source of private-school advantage— if such an advantage even exist.” Susan Tarves, ANOTHER KIND OF SCHOOL CHOICE (student essay) 39 In all the uproar over “school choice,” here’s an- other choice to consider: single-gender schools. v Contents vi Marc Fisher, TO EACH ITS OWN (essay) 44 “On paper, in a dream, a charter school—in effect, a privately run public school—is a way out, an an- swer, an engine for change. On the street, in a kid’s life, a charter school is a building with teachers, students, headaches, tragedies and, once in a while, a moment of shining success.” Jonathan Kozol, A TALE OF TWO SCHOOLS: HOW POOR CHILDREN ARE LOST TO THE WORLD (essay) 61 Conditions at two Chicago-area schools illustrate the inequalities that result from our system of funding public education. Charles Dickens, WHAT IS A HORSE? (fiction) 64 A great English novelist describes and satirizes the “progressive” education of his day (and ours?). Jerome Stern, WHAT THEY LEARN IN SCHOOL (prose poem) 67 “They mainly want to teach them not to question, not to challenge, not to imagine, but to be obedi- ent. .” What’s College For? 69 Alice Walker, EVERYDAY USE (fiction) 69 The “child who has made it” confronts her sister who “hasn’t.” What’s an education for? Bell Hooks, PEDAGOGY AND POLITICAL COMMITMENT: A COMMENT (essay) 77 “I have tried to teach in a way that does not rein- force structures of domination: imperialism, racism, sexism, and class exploitation.” She calls it “educating for liberation.” Contents vii ADS FOR HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY AND SETON HALL UNIVERSITY (advertisements) 84–85 What’s college for? What’s the meaning of success? These ads imply some answers. Garry B. Trudeau, DOONESBURY (cartoon) 86 Does this cartoon offer a portrait of intellectual life at your college or university? W. D. Snodgrass, THE EXAMINATION (poem) 87 A college education is a sort of surgical procedure, isn’t it? John Searle, THE CASE FOR A TRADITIONAL LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION (essay) 89 “This generation of radicals doesn’t want to take over the country, they want to take over the English department.” Literacy Narratives: How Did You Become Literate? 102 Benjamin Franklin, from THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (memoir) 102 The quintessential American coming-of-age story is in part a story of a gathering literacy. Frederick Douglass, from THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS (slave narrative) 106 One of the most famous nineteenth-century ora- tors and essayists recounts the thrilling—and dan- gerous—story of his learning to read and write. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER (short story) 111 Contents viii “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency— what is one to do?” A feminist and social reformer answers the question, and in the process shows how writing can be an instrument of personal— and public—health. Marcus Gilmore, THE HUMAN CONTACT ZONE (student essay) 126 A student reflects on the difficulties of not using Standard English: “we all carry the contact zone within us.” Mary Ann Williams, TURNING TOPSY TURVEY (poem) 132 Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow. “What happened to all the cute Black lambs?” Min-Zhan Lu, FROM SILENCE TO WORDS: WRITING AS STRUGGLE (memoir) 134 An English teacher recalls the frustration and con- fusion she felt at being caught between two worlds, two languages—it’s a story of language use for survival. Chi-Fan Jennifer Ku, AN INTERNAL DIVIDE (student essay) 147 “[One day I hope to find] a place where my American ghost and Chinese spirit can live coexist in harmony. One day I will succeed. One day . I will know who I am.” Part Two Language 151 Introduction 152 Should We Have a National Language? 155 Richard Rodriguez, ARIA: A MEMOIR OF A BILINGUAL CHILDHOOD (essay) 155 Contents ix Another literacy narrative: A writer born into a Spanish-speaking, Mexican American family mea- sures the gains and losses that result when English replaces Spanish. Victor Villanueva Jr., WHOSE VOICE IS IT ANYWAY? RODRIGUEZ’ SPEECH IN RETROSPECT (essay) 166 A professor of English responds to Rodriguez and defends bilingual education. Ron Unz and Gloria Matta Tuchman, THE ENGLISH EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN INITIATIVE (law) 175 Here is the exact language of a California law de- signed to refashion bilingual education efforts. American Civil Liberties Union, BRIEFING PAPER ON “ENGLISH ONLY” (Frequently Asked Questions Web page) 180 The famous civil liberties group expresses its reservations about efforts to make English the “of- ficial language” of the United States. U. S. ENGLISH, WHY AN IMMIGRANT HEADS AN ORGANIZATION CALLED U. S. ENGLISH (ad) 186 U. S. English enlists Mauro Mujica to speak for them—in The National Review. Is There a “Standard” English? 187 Barbara Mellix, FROM OUTSIDE, IN (essay) 187 A writer who grew up speaking both Black English and Standard English meditates on the conse- quences, both political and personal. Amy Tan, MOTHER TONGUE (speech) 198 The author of The Joy Luck Club meditates on the languages and language users that mothered her. Contents x Geneva Smitherman, WHITE ENGLISH IN BLACKFACE, OR WHO DO I BE? (essay) 203 “Ain nothin in a long time lit up the English teach- ing profession like the current hassle over Black English.” Eldridge Cleaver, WE NEED TO RESCUE KIDS FROM EBONICS (letter to the editor) 214 “I am not just a freedom talker; I am a freedom fighter. But I say no to Ebonics.” Douglas Haneline, A COMMENT ON TEACHING STANDARD EDITED AMERICAN ENGLISH (letter to the editor) 216 English teachers who fail to teach Standard English are not doing their jobs, contends a col- lege professor. ON EBONICS: A DISCUSSION OF BLACK ENGLISH (Internet exchange) 217 Five participants in an Internet listserv debate the justice, practicality, and wisdom of promoting Ebonics through the schools. Keith Gilyard, IT AIN’T HARD TO TELL: DISTINGUISHING FACT FROM FALLACY IN THE EBONICS CONTROVERSY (essay) 225 “One of the things I am sure about as the debate over Ebonics continues is that not much of it is taking place in libraries.” Gary Larson, THE FAR SIDE (cartoon) 233 A powerful—and funny—dramatization of the re- lationship between language and politics. Is English Sexist? 234 Beverly Gross, BITCH (essay) 234 Contents xi “What is the male equivalent of the word bitch, I asked the class. ‘Boss,’ said Sabrina Sims. I haven’t been able to get [her answer] out of my mind.” David F. Sally, GENDERATOR I.I: A MODISH PROPOSAL (satire) 243 “The Neuter Corporation is proud to introduce a word processing tool/utensil that will make all your gender worries vanish in the night—GEN- DERATOR I.I!” “YOU’LL JUST LOVE THE WAY HE HANDLES” (cartoon) 248 This New Yorker cartoon goes straight to the heart of the question, “Is English sexist?” Deborah Tannen, CROSSTALK (essay) 249 A best-selling author outlines differences in the ways men and women communicate, and fail to communicate, at work. Part Three Race and Gender 255 Introduction 256 Defining Race 260 Sharon Begley, THREE IS NOT ENOUGH (essay) 260 A Time magazine story calls into question our tra- ditional attitudes toward race. Karla Brundage, PASSING (essay) 266 How does it feel to be the fair-skinned daughter of a black mother and white father? And how do you cope with fitting into both communities—and nei- ther? Linda Hogan, “THE HISTORY OF RED” AND “HERITAGE” (poems) 272 Contents xii A leading native American poet reflects on her background in two poems not easily forgotten. Demian Hess, “BUT YOU DON’T LOOK CHINESE!” (student essay) 276 The son of a Jewish father and Chinese mother re- flects on “being different.” Ranier Spencer, RACE AND MIXED RACE: A PERSONAL TOUR (essay) 282 “It seemed to me strange and inconsistent that racially mixed people could be black or mixed but not white. What was the secret?” Defining Gender 295 LETTERS FROM AND BETWEEN JOHN ADAMS AND ABIGAIL ADAMS (letters) 295 Our second president and his wife debate the place of women in the new American republic. Sojourner Truth, AIN’T I A WOMAN? (speech) 297 “I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me. And ain’t I a woman?” Susan Glaspell, TRIFLES (play) 299 A murder in a small community uncovers sharp, and persistent, divisions between the sexes. Marge Piercy, BARBIE DOLL (poem) 311 “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs.” Sharon Olds, RITES OF PASSAGE (poem) 313 “We could easily kill a two-year-old, he says in his clear voice. The other men agree. .” Contents xiii Scott Russell Sanders, THE MEN WE CARRY IN OUR MINDS (essay) 314 “I wasn’t an enemy, in fact or in feeling.