why teach?

Why read and write? My literature education professor wrote that simple sentence on a scrap of paper for a class exercise. Everyone in the class had to choose a scrap--each of which came equipped with a quality that we as teachers had to consider. Most people wrote pragmatic, reasonable things that could easily be observed in a classroom seting. I wrote exigence, but quickly abandoned my abstraction for my professors pleasantly terse slip of paper--which also came without the need for a vocabulary lesson each time my trait came up. I picked up his slip, more or less forgetting about it.

A few days later I picked it up because I needed a bookmark. I know it's the worst use of a classroom activity in the history of Earth, but my bookmark collection couldn't handle the four texts in tandem I was plowing through at the time. So now, each day upon cracking open my volumes of educational theory, I stared at that rectangle of paper, its infintesmally complex question lying perpendicular across the page--behind those blue bars. At the time the words were still meaningless.

It's one month later and i'm sitting at work. It's only a few hours from closing and the store brought in, well, minimal funding today. The silence here has begun to encroach on my sanity as i finished reading Culture Jam in under 24 hours--all while working. I tried to start a new book but this bookmark keeps nagging me-WHY? WHY am i reading this; WHY might i teach this; WHY would i try to connect this outside the walls of the classroom? This is my tell-tale heart, pounding its message into my brain until I go mad. How can such a simple sentence cause me to need to expunge my thoughts into my chicken-scratch handwriting in my notebook (even though you're reading this in a clean, typed format)? Before delving into that assuredly lengthy tirade, I need another cup of coffee.

So the question remains-why bother? I think the answer lies partialy in the cathartic value of the experience of it. When you're watching television you only get one side of a story and no time to consider the meaning of it. The screen bombards you with images and immerses you into a prescribed culture. You can't even stop to catch your breath.

With reading, it's a whole different world--heck, it's worlds upon worlds ad infitium--Borges' tower of babel at your fingertips. Every book i've ever read prompts me to consider my world slightly differently. My life has become one endless allusion. The power to stop and go as I please while reading grants precious time to think and reflect on the perspectives, information, realities, and musings--conscience and otherwise--of any author. Television, radio, and newspapers could never provide the wise man's gifts. They lost their myrrh. A book provides a portal into someone else's brain. Reading grants the ability to leave this world and jump into any other. Upon proper time spent reflecting, messages--ones of either acceptance or denial--grow from the text and become internalized. This provides the opportunity to find just the right character to get through a tough spot in life. When you jump into someone else's shoes, it's easy to empathize with characters you didn't think possible, you really needed advice from, or those you've dreamed about. The only other medium that comes even close to providing a similar experience is film.

Movies have a similar power upon reflection, but embody a greater sense of effeciency--although depth must be sacrificed for the increase in speed. They can be read in similar ways to books--why does the character act the way he does? Would I do that? Why was this scene created this way? How does the character (or narrator, director, author, etc.) relate to my life? Watching movies and reading books are more than just an activity, they are an endlessly malleable gateway. However, these mediums have a pretty serious portcullis--that of literacy.

The ability to read a text to extract messages--whatever they may be--does not come naturally. A critical lens for this must be developed in the classroom. That's why I want to teach. I have gained so much knowledge on analysis, language, art, and lessons on living that it's nearly impossible to truly comprehend. Although this may seem like a vaguely preachy approach to education, it's really not. There is no one right way to analyze a text. There are the one's that the author intended, which, although they contain the way problems get dealt with in the texts, they may not have been the best way to solve them. Either that or maybe the characters did things uncharacteristic of them. The ability to judge them against their actions as well as through them gives an unlimited number of slightly different perspectives. I certainly don't plan on driving my vision straight through my student's skulls, Pantera style, but I feel like this insight needs to be shared. I'm sure this is all well and good, however, it still doesn't answer the question of why.

The importance of reading as a growth experience certainly won't sell very many parents, but I believe it could get students involved. If students can learn solidarity through Fuente Ovejuna, peaceful protest through Lysistrata, intelligent yet cynical commentary through A Catcher in the Rye, or take some other value from those texts--such as the value of the censorship and subsequent banning of A Cather in the Rye. These are the sorts of values and questions that students should consider--whatever their reaction to them. That's why I want to teach--to give students that ability to supplement their lives and grow from the texts of living. Once a student is able to read a piece of literature, where an in-depth analysis comes somewhat easily from the amount of information available, an analysis of somewhat more subtle texts--such as those contained in TV shows, advertisements, speeches, corporate logos/slogans, news broadcasts, and all the other texts in the world becomes greatly more simplified.

If I had to explicitly say why to read and write, I'm going to propose a question--why did you read this far in my essay? Perhaps you decided that I'm crazy and you don't want to talk to me anymore. Perhaps you feel strangely inclined to e-mail me because you think the same way and want to discuss these thoughts further. Maybe, if you're an employer, you'll feel like you got to know me better than just looking at a simple resume because this somewhat more literary insight provided a broader scan into my brain. You might like me more or less after taking this in. The amount of interpretations extractable from this simple essay prove the power of reading and writing firsthand. From my writing you can learn more about me and possibly even take in some of my thoughts and apply them to your own experiences and values. You've learned more from your reading and scanning than you assumed you would, or even realized you did. So, why should we read and write? Simply to learn about life. Our lives, the lives of others, the lives we detest or fantasize about. That's why I want to teach--to show how to learn.