Be Your Better Self: Writing to Embrace Humanity in a Time of Despair

 Talking Points 

One of the passages that resonated with me was “Be Your Better Self: Writing to Embrace Humanity in a Time of Despair.” The author, Linda Christensen, argues that writing helps students process difficult emotions and make sense of a troubled world. Writing allows them to hold onto hope and recognize their shared humanity, even during times of despair. She says “I want my curriculum to celebrate that there are many more people, including those in the classroom, who act on behalf of others. In this lesson, students examine their own lives for those moments when they acted as their better selves…” This makes me think of what the students I teach would reflect on. My school community is predominantly white and they are sheltered by their parents without knowing the reality of what’s going on. I know their examples don’t have to be “going to a no kings protest” or anything extreme but I truly wonder if they think about those without their privilege. This also reminds me of how I know our middle school ELA teacher has gotten push back in the past about teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. Ultimately, she does teach it but brings in themes of things such as racial injustice. Through reading and writing about real-world issues, students develop empathy. They can begin to understand what others are going through and also a sense of responsibility to act. 

Linda Christensen also emphasizes the importance of students telling their own stories, especially those whose voices are often ignored, which reminds me of the Silenced Dialogue by Delpit. Writing can be a way for students to express their experiences and feel seen and valued. Christensen believes teaching and writing should encourage students to question inequality and imagine a more just world. In health, I teach about their health triangle. This contains mental/emotional health, physical health and social health. During the topic of social health, I like to do conflict resolution in healthy ways and developing healthy relationships with friends, families, and those around you. I think I would like to use her chart to challenge my students to think about how they can be their “better selves.” Even after reading this I see my bias of the town I teach in and their overall views, but all my students are their own person and I should give them the chance to reflect on themselves. I think any activity like this can “help students imagine a world in which people take care of each other.” (p. 24)

Making Connections

Reading this volume of Rethinking Schools makes me think of an instance with a friend. A group of us were speaking about Bad Bunny’s halftime performance and someone mentioned he might wear a bulletproof vest and he was being cautious about ICE. Someone then said “Why is he afraid? They’re only trying to locate the illegal immigrants.” In an instant, I said “But they aren’t and that is the problem. They are harming, arresting and killing people that are here legally. What about the 5 year old taken from school by ICE?” She didn’t really know what to say but the conversation ended there. It makes me think of how people are choosing to be ignorant of the horrific reality we are in. In connection to this particular article, I think this class has made me feel better that there are people that share my ideas on topics like ICE, racism, etc. It gives me hope that there might be some humanness still left. I recently visited my sister and flew through Atlanta during the TSA shutdown. We were talking about how early I should get there but also about why this was happening. Our president’s solution was not to fund the TSA workers but to pay untrained ICE agents to “help”. That is NOT helping. My sister and I often go down these spiraling rabbit holes which can feel so hopeless but I remember what my mom said when he was first elected, “It is okay to feel afraid and nervous about what the future holds but if you let it consume you then he wins.” I try to think of things, such as this class, that bring me some hope that people are learning about what is happening and working to do something about it.