Duct Tape on My Book Spine

With the right twang, that blog title could be a country western song.  We saw this great review of We Were There Too!: Young People in U.S History on Amazon and could not help belting it out.

“My copy has been read so often that the spine had to be taped. For years, every time I needed history to write about, I went to this book. 7th grade project to research a lesser-known Latino historical figure? Jessica Govea. 8th grade historical figure painting project? Harriet Hanson. A paper about the civil war with an original topic? Five pages on Dick King and Billy Bates. Wonderfully engaging.” –Amazon Review

What book have you had to tape back together?  My copy of Richard Scary’s What Do People Do All Day? has a length of duct tape running down its poor cracked spine from my childhood obsession.

Pilgrim Children Gave Parents “Great Greefe”

“many of the [English children]…were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses…to thee great greefe of their parents and dishonour of god.” –William Bradford

In celebration of Thanksgiving, author Phillip Hoose spoke to his local public radio station, MPBN, about the Pilgrim’s motivation to leave their adopted Holland because of their worry that their young people were on “extravagant and dangerous courses.”  Rebellious Pilgrim kids?? Not your common view of the holiday.

Listen here to Phil’s MPBN talk or revisit the “Saints and Strangers: Bound for Hope” chapter in Hoose’s We Were There Too: Young People in U.S. History.

An undeniable connection

Every student knows the Rosa Parks story.  When students discover there was a teenager before Rosa and a teenager that was silenced, their sense of injustice is piqued.  The students connect with Claudette Colvin because they know what it feels like to be ignored or dismissed because of their age.

Katherine Rosario spoke nicely about Claudette’s connection to teens in her fantastic blog review of Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

“Claudette Colvin is a teenage student who stood up for what she believed in. How many students today would be willing to do what she did? It might be few or more than we would anticipate. Students can look to Claudette Colvin as a role model and someone that they may be able to connect with, given that she is one of them; a teen. This can relate to Emmett Till that we learn about in the text. “‘There had been lynchings and cross burnings before, but this was a much stronger warning. Emmett Till was age.’” (59)

An undeniable connection exists because they are all about the same age, thus, teens today may see Claudette as one of their peers. This is one way that students can begin to connect with the text, through Claudette herself. This is where the ball gets rolling; students may be more engaged with the text which opens up for more possible connections to be made.”–Katherine Rosario Blog

Why Not In English Class?

Our thanks to Bloggity Blog Blog for the post More Than Just a History Lesson for encouraging a taste of Civil Rights History in English class…

“Although I know that there will be English teachers who won’t like to teach a book like this and see it better fit in a history class, we as English teachers do teach history as a number of the books we decide to use in our class will be tied to a different era than what our students are familiar with.  Knowing that we’ll have to teach them a bit of history to better understand those books, why not choose a book like Claudette Colvin:  Twice Toward Justice and let the book do the explaining for us, allowing us to focus on how we can use it to enhance our students reading, writing, researching and cognitive skills”

Did You Know…

“Did you know that someone before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person?  Did you know that someone was a fifteen year old girl”

So begins the wonderful review of Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Ms. Hughes who teaches 6th Grade Reading at Wilde Lake Middle School in Columbia, MD.

The book is often described as about “the 15-year-old Rosa Parks.”  The book’s reading level  comes at an age where kids are ready to see beyond the icons of history to the smaller, more complicated, and previously unknown stories.  Claudette’s story is all that.  Thanks Ms. Hughes for sharing it with your students.

The Examined Life, Age 8

Bryce Vickmark for The New York Times

There was a wonderful piece in the New York Times on Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg teaching of philosophy to children through children’s books. You can read the full article, “Examined Life, Age 8″ here.

“The world is a puzzling place and when you’re young it doesn’t make sense,” Professor Wartenberg says. “What you’re giving them is the sort of skills to learn how to think about these things.”

We thank Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg for using Hey, Little Ant in his fine curriculum alongside such great books as The Giving Tree, Morris the Moose, and Frog and Toad Together.

Phillip Hoose on AdLit.org

Phillip Hoose talks about the inspiration for Its Our World Too! and We Were There Too! with the grand folks at AdLit.org.

Forever Young

Phillip Hoose was pleased to be invited to write an essay for The Nature Conservancy’s new youth programs.  Phil is a conservation planner for The Nature Conservancy where he has been a staff member since 1977.

“…the youthful experience of nature itself may be headed for extinction. Children living even in remote villages experience life through headphones, plugged into gadgets whose reach knows no end. Without help, our descendants may not even notice nature, let alone continue our conservation work…”

Read the full essay. “Forever Young” at Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog for the Nature Conservancy.

Freedom Project

Pleased that Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and We Were There Too: Young People in U.S. History are included in the University of Delaware’s Freedom Project: Teaching American History program this year.  Phil Hoose will be speaking to educators there on July 26, 2011.

The goals of the TAH Freedom Project are (1) increased teacher knowledge of American history content and standards, (2) improved instruction in the area of American history, and (3) increased student achievement in the area of American history.  Fine goals, indeed.

Why did I write about Claudette Colvin?

I hoped that Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice would change the way we talk about the Montgomery bus protest.   I think it has.   It isn’t just that then 15-year-old Claudette Colvin took great risks and suffered great consequences before Rosa Parks famously did exactly what she did nearly a year later.   It is, that as a teenager, Claudette’s risks were different, and I think much greater.

As Evanston Public Library staff said in the Loft Blog post about the book, “the teens who stood up (or remained seated) for their constitutional rights had everything to lose.  They did not have established reputations on which to draw, rather, they were immersed in the sometimes murky waters of high school where student opinions shift like the tides; one minute you’re a hero, and the next you’re an outcast and are shunned.  Claudette Colvin’s courage is the rawest, bravest kind.  She put her entire future on the line.“

Beyond that, hardly anyone knows how the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended.  Most assume that the boycott simply wore down the bus company and city officials, and they gave up.  Far from it.  They were fighting for the entire southern way of life.  In fact, a lawsuit turned the tide.  Entitled Browder v. Gayle, the suit challenged the constitutionality of bus segregation laws in Montgomery and Alabama.   Claudette Colvin was one of only four black citizens of Montgomery-all females-who put their names on that suit as a plaintiff.  By doing so, they put their own lives, and those of their families and neighbors at risk.   Amazingly, they won.   That suit ended legal racial discrimination in public transportation.

Why did I write about Claudette Colvin?  I wrote about Claudette because she made contributions to human rights far too important to be forgotten.  I believe the book has cast a brighter, broader light on her courage.  I’m proud of it’s success, and delighted that it’s now out in a superb paperback edition with a new afterward.