pull-back on Push

Watching myself read this book was a very slippery task. Only in retrospect can I think about such matters. Mine was mostly a aesthetic reading of Push...I read the book in three installments and each time, had a hard time putting it down...due to a pretty intense emotional engrossment, which I talk about in my first "Push" posting. Efferent reading happened during Precious's walk through Harlem, as she commented on the character transformation of junkies -- the "HAIRRUN shooters" (105)-- that in such a state, they'd steal anything from anyone. I felt like a cool observer, too, while P stayed that night at the Armory-turned-shelter. I felt myself sometimes an observer...like conducting an observation...in Blue Rain's writing classes. That she wrote back and did so as both a supporter and an asker-of-questions presumably for all her students, was good practice. That she fostered a trusting atmosphere was good practice. How she handled conflict showed that she was in control of herself, mature, clear about her vision for the outcome -- for example how she handled one woman's insistence that she belonged in the GED class, not the pre-GED class; and especially, how she handled P's explosive temper (pp. 96-97) when Rain asked her to write, that "writng could be the boat carry you to the other side"... P screams at her...and Rains gently persists, "I know you are [tired] but you can't stop now Precious, you gotta push." She actually used the language of good practice...in the face of the ever-so-useful [2.8] reading score :"A good reader is like a detective, she say, looking for clues in the text. A good reader is like you Precious, she say" (108).

Rosenblatt talks about how "(r)eason should arise in a matrix of feeling" (216). I think a book like Push is an exemplar of a feeling-inducing book for the purpose of connecting with an inner reality and outer world that we may never really "get" otherwise. We help students develop habits of mind: the "habit of reflecting on his primary transactions with books." Then the student finds him/herself in a "situation" that permits "possible alternative interpretations and responses" ...to then better "understand his own preoccupations and assumptions better." Then, the developmental next step is for the student to "seek additional information concerning the work, the author, and their social setting......" (p. 214). Rosenblatt extends the experience with literature -- which is one of practice (as in rehearsing) -- to the student's real life. That the habits of mind of noticing his/her primary responses, taking into account the responses of others, examining his/her own assumptions, and to look beyond the pat answer...are the habits of mind that critical thinkers who are participants in a democracy, need.