for the literature lovers

This morning I led a discussion of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre with six home schooled high school students who are part of a co-op group. Immediately after agreeing to do this a month or so ago, I started kicking myself. It has been so long since I've been in high school and the MA in English changed the way I read and discuss literature, so I was afraid I wouldn't know the proper way to approach the text with a group of 15 to 17 year old kids. Then I pulled my copy of Jane Eyre off the shelf and began re-reading it.

I had forgotten how much I love that novel. The last time I read it was for my MA comps, and I was certainly reading it with a different purpose and lens at the time. This time, while I kept possible discussion topics and questions in the back of my mind, I could just soak in the book.

One of the many things I love about Victorian fiction is how rich the descriptions are. The authors don't just propel the reader from one plot point to another, they paint a vivid, imagination-capturing picture of what life was like in nineteenth century Britain, and they told stories that were deeply rooted in what it means to be human. Today's novels seem almost skeletal in comparison. I love how these books show that in spite of the different cultures and time periods and technologies between that time and this, people are essentially the same. We have the same passions, the same motivations, the same struggles, and the same triumphs. For all of our great progress, we are them, and they painted us so well.

So I decided to share that with these 6 high schoolers. For context I gave them a mini lecture about the life of Charlotte Brontë and the connections between her and the character Jane Eyre. Then we dove into the novel. We had an amazing discussion about the tension between duty and desire and how perhaps it is not either-or but both-and that Brontë advocates. We talked about the role of the governess, the condition of charity boarding schools in the mid-nineteenth century, and the significance of phenomenology and physiognomy during the Victorian age. They had some really great insights into the texts and were so willing to share their ideas and questions about the text.

In short - it was a smashing success. I will very likely guest "teach" a book for their group next semester.

For now though I have an itch to find another long-lost and much loved novel tucked away somewhere on my bookshelf.

speaking the language

During my junior and senior year of undergrad, I worked as a tutor at the USD Writing Center. While we offered services to all students and faculty on campus, a large portion of our business was from the international students on campus.

I always found tutoring the international students to be more challenging and rewarding than tutoring students from the US. Most of them were from various countries in Asia and Africa. Many of them had already earned college (or at least high school) degrees in their native countries and had come to the US to work on another degree but just needed a little help with their English.

Where I live now, we don't have a ton of international students on campus, but there are at least 26 languages spoken by families in the county and sizable Hispanic, Kurdish, and Russian communities. Needless to say, there is a huge need for tutoring in basic reading skills and English as a Second Language (ESL).

I've tried to imagine what it would be like to move to a different country where I didn't know the language or the culture. What would I do if I had to go to the doctor and couldn't understand a word he or she was saying? How would I ask for directions? How would I be able to find a job and keep that job once I had it? Even in my wildest imagination, I don't think I can really comprehend what it would be like. I have tremendous respect for anyone who moves to this country (or another for that matter) without having full command of the language. I think that must take incredible courage.

So in light of all this, I've decided to volunteer to be an ESL tutor for one of the organizations in town. I'll go through the training after I get back from vacation and will know more then about how many students I'll be working with and what it all entails. As I know more, I'll keep you posted...

Oh, and in case I hadn't mentioned it before, I'm really excited about this :) I think it's going to be an amazing (and most likely challenging) experience.