Tatum's message

Tatum takes on the thorny issue of identity construction in Black adolescent males and says explicitly that schooling is largely an affront to their self-esteem and masculinity. His message is consistent with Rosenblatt's in that it's about knowing your students and beginning with meeting them where they are through the use of short, dense texts of clear personal interest to these young men. I like how he uses every opportunity to both teach the language and challenge the underlying assumptions. The Pledge of Allegiance was a case in point. Graff and Cain (1989) propose that we "teach the conflicts" which requires that students become anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and more when deconstructing the "they say" reasons for doing what we do in this culture. He's big on word study....I like that he teaches all kinds of reading including reading the stock page -- and helps his students learn that branch of power-speak. It was helpful to see some vignettes of teachers not quite getting it -- as in the story of the unwilling little girl to whom the teacher said essentially, okay -- you don't have to. It brought to mind Precious's outburst toward Rain -- and Rain's kindness to her -- BUT her firm insistence that she "push". Ann brought up a great point in her blog about her concern that this book become another set of "activities" to bring up the scores. Tatum is pretty clear in the last two chapters that it takes consistent teacher-centered and teacher-run professional development to establlish a climate of inquiry into one's teaching -- with enough collegial trust to open one's practice to discussion. It's interesting -- because I think it's teacher-to-teacher observations and feedback, and teacher research done in a community of colleagues that will help the teaching profession take back its power.