by Julia López-Robertson, Amanda Dunnigan, and Rebecca Martin, The University of South Carolina
“ . . . it has to begin with acceptance and by honoring people’s cultural practices; way of life, language and belief systems— even if one doesn’t fully understand it.”
Set in San Antonio, Texas, Going, Going by Naomi Shihab Nye follows the main character, Florrie, a teenager as she begins a grassroots campaign to protest the loss of local business to large corporations. Having worked in her mother’s restaurant as long as she could remember, Florrie understood the importance of supporting local businesses. My students connected Florrie’s struggle to maintain the local in San Antonio to maintaining our own students’ language and culture. Continue reading
Yang stresses the importance of being who you truly are and nothing less. As teachers it is our duty to create a classroom environment in which our students can feel free and comfortable being themselves.
Today’s blog begins a discussion by authors Ruta Sepetys, Jim Deem, and Jewell Parker Rhodes at the 2012 Tucson Festival of Books in March entitled “Confronting Difficult Life Events through Story.” The discussion will continue in the next two blogs. All three authors have published books, both fiction and non-fiction, that deal with terrible historical events and the resiliency of people to endure in the most horrific of circumstances.