"I like it when my students cry, when they read with solemnity
and purpose, when the project of making meaning becomes personal. My
middle school students turn again and again to highly charged young
adult novels. The poems and stories they receive enthusiastically are
the ones that pack the most emotional punch. Just as teens like to take
physical risks, they are driven to take emotional risks. For teachers,
emotion is our lever. The teen mind is our stone. Put another way, emotion is the English teacher’s entry point for literary exploration and for the development of the high-level skills outlined in the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted in 45 states. Unfortunately, the authors of the standards are not particularly interested in emotional risk taking but rather in the avoidance of political risk. It is a rather bloodless effort."
To read the full essay by Claire Needell Hollander, go to:
Illustration by Jon Han
