Welcome to Literature Group #1's posting area. In the "post comment" section directly below this post please do the following:
1) Choose a passage to post.
2) Write your passage.
3) Write two questions to share with your literature group to prompt an online discussion in relation to your passage.
4) Write two "ahas"--surprises or new knowledge
5) Read each others postings (passage, questions, and "ahas").
6) Respond to the members of your groups postings.
Well, I'm not sure which ONE passage I could choose. My books is all filled with post it notes. pg 246 in a diary entry, Melba says "I think only the warrior exists in me now. Melba went away to hide. She was too frightened to stay here." The fact that she says this after all the obstacles she faced, all the hatred she endured and was still able to face her fears. She becomes another person in order to survive. That is one brave girl!
ReplyDeleteQuestions I had as I read: 1) there was so much abuse happening in the schools within eye sight of teachers, and yet they looked the other way. They stayed out of halls to avoid having that "adult who say the incident" and have to report that was the nine students were saying was true. How do you as a teacher allow things like that to happen? Were they all racist? I can't fathom that to be true!
2) Would you have been strong enough to survive and thrive like those students did?
New knowledge I gained: I didn't know that the Nat'l Guard was originally there to keep them OUT of the school. I always thought they were there to help. Wonder what those soldiers thought of that duty? I had never really heard about any of the white students helping them out. The story of Link was surprising. Also, I knew they were given a hard time, but I had no idea the extent of the violence against them: DYNAMITE in the school? Acid in the face? Knifing? Wow!
Courage and strength are pretty unpredictable. We don't know it about ourselves or others 'til the situation is upon us. Neither we nor others seem to act in the ways expected.
DeleteAnd who knows, Jennifer, many of us may get some additional chances yet (again) to show what we're made of.
I don't think all the teachers could have been equally against the intergration. It's really hard to be the one to stand up and say "this isn't right" and I imagine the fear of being ostracized or even hurt by those who disagreed kept teachers who might have helped the Little Rock 9 from doing so.
DeleteI don't think I could do what those children did. When working in Japan I encountered some racism, but really ignorance from the students I taught who would comment on my caucasian features in rude ways or make fun of my accent when speaking Japanese. When you are a minority in a new culture even these small comments based on ignorance can be devastating. There is no way I would have made it through the verbal and physical attacks the Little Rock 9 endured. I would have quit.
"My Central High School experience also taught me that we are not separate. The effort to separate ourselves, whether by race, creed, color, religion, or status is as costly to the separator as to those who would be separated."
ReplyDeleteIronic that a lesson learned is a lesson ignored, and now the same mistakes are being repeated in a new style, with all races guilty. Few Whites--and just as few Blacks--have much awareness of this history and of the real purpose of that struggle.
Are we any less separate now, with schools and teachers tripping over themselves to cater to various groups, making decisions about whose included, whose language is suppressed?
Have we measured up to the genuine civil rights heroes?
I'd have to say I got no real new knowledge from the book; I'd already read it. Somehow I was lucky (or odd) enough to have been well read on the civil rights struggle at an early age. So, if I seem to be at all callous or unemotional about it, it's just that I'm very familiar with the topic.
We are less separate, but in some ways I think people separate and categorize themselves. I remember back to my high school cafeteria and how we would separate into different tables based on race, socio-economic status, country of origin etc. It wasn't talked about, but there was an "Asian kids" table and a few "black kids" tables etc.
DeleteI think we still have a lot of work to do if we ever hope to measure up to out civil rights heroes expectations for America. Racism might not be as visible as it was for the Little Rock 9, but it is still very much a part of the American experience.
I felt proud and sad at the same time. Proud that I loved on a country that would go this far to bring justice to a Little Rock girl like me, but sad that they had to go to such great lengths. Yes, this is the United States, I thought to myself. There is a reason that I salute the flag. If these guys just go with us this first time, everything’s going to be okay.
ReplyDeleteWe began moving forward. The eerie silence of that moment would forever be etched in my memory. All I could hear was my own heartbeat and the sound of boots clicking on the stone.
pg 132
Two questions:
What are your thoughts on Melba’s patriotic statement, “there is a reason that I salute the flag”? In so many ways she has been overlooked and underserved by her country, do you think you’d feel this way in her shoes?
Melba says she is both proud and sad as she walks into the school. Which feeling do you identify with most when hearing about Melba’s experiences?
Two things I didn’t know:
I didn’t know the governor tried to keep them out! That was surprising. And terrible.
I also thought there would have been more students that tried to help them, be friendly or at least tolerate them. I was shocked and saddened to learn the cruelty they had to endure. The weapons, knives and dynamite, they were threatened with by students.
I agree Greta, I was shocked more students didn't reach out to help them. Boggles my mind that things like that occured and no one did anything. I would like to believe that a lot of students were horrified by what was going on, but were too afraid of being called "n-lovers" to actually do anything. Look at Linc. He played along with the icky guys trying to seem like one of the guys because he was afraid.
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