Because
the author is dedicated to the idea that the individual experiences of
students are important, valid, and a constructive constituent of
capital-e Education, it follows naturally that he places his personal
experiences as an educator at the fore. “I suggest that my professional
growth entailed learning to trust that my experiences with my students
in the classroom could become a valuable intellectual resource.”
(Campano 7). In addition, as he points out on page 12, his own
personal history is inextricable from his academic identity, despite
what he was first led to believe.
As
a teacher, Campano learned that the stories his students carried as
part of thier identity were just as “epic” as the ones he was ostensibly
teaching. “They were about survival, unimaginable loss, separation
from home and community...” (18). Evidently, he saw echoes of the
curriculum in the lives of those he taught, and vice versa. A not
uncommon experience, but to introduce to his possibly guarded students
the idea of telling those stories, and have them do it, is a laudable
coup. His phrase is “a pedagogy of listening”, and is appealing.
I
like to read, but there is little more that I enjoy than hearing a good
story told well. I see his point, and I see the connection to seeing
“texts” more broadly per class discussion last Wednesday. At my school,
the senior English text is a collection of classroom(ish) interactions
with material. Some are books and some are not. Though it would raise
the eyebrows if not the ire of those in administrative positions with
administrative priorities based on administratively verifiable numbers, I
like taking time when students say things like, “Mr. Curran, you wanna
hear a story?”
