Continued Lessons from MLK

During this weekend's MLK events I partook in the Reading by Dana Johnson and the Community Talk Back with Wilbert Smith, producer of “A Hole in the Head.” I did not have the opportunity to watch the film before attending the talk back, but I don't feel as though this has limited my experience at all. Speaking of the readings first: Johnson read a section from her book of short stories that chronicles a young African American girl as she moves from the inner-city to the suburbs and explores her journey growing up in that divided culture. The passage Johnson shared was about the main character's outing to a Dodgers game with her father, best friend, cousin and crush. Along the way the family's car breaks down on the side of the highway; they are then found and picked up by a middle aged white man with his daughter. This passage speaks to the theme of community among Dodger fans and expands that to include all people.

Johnson writes into a genre of multiculturalism allowing readers from all backgrounds to enjoy and appreciate her stories. She has a good concept of character voice and that allows her to effectively switch from an older character to a younger character. I have not had a great deal of exposure to the western culture that she was writing about, so that was interesting. I also have not had a great deal of experience with racial differences; by adding the African American dialect and Latin American references, Johnson opened a new door for me. I found the reading to be culturally educating. The novel could be a useful tool when I begin teaching. It could help me understand the mentality of students who have recently moved, as well as those from California. It would also be an interesting book to teach because it shows multiple cultures in one area, and several perspectives on those cultures and unifies the character and the reader through human experience.

The second event I attended was a talk back event for students, staff and community members in the Goshen area. The producer Wilbur Smith of the film, “A Hole in the Head” was the guest speaker. Smith commented on importance of finding these individual stories and creating a larger national narrative from them, a national narrative that reflects both the good and the bad of our nations history, as well as narratives from multiple different races and cultural backgrounds. His film is the story of a man who was the test subject of radiation testing. At age five he was subjected to radiation testing to get rid of scalp worm, however he was exposed to too much and was left with a hole in his scalp. He hid this from the public afraid of what others would say about him for 71 years until he told his story to Smith. I find this idea of a larger narrative particularly interesting. It could be a nice jumping point for a writing project.

Toward the end of the discussion, the theme of forgiveness came up. Comments were made about how the main character in the film never complained or blamed anyone for what had happened to him. This brought up the idea of faith and the concept that forgiveness is a transfer of power. Meaning that forgiveness acts as a transfer of power from the aggressor to the victim. I feel like the comments about the power of forgiveness would be an interesting topic to explore more, perhaps in a convocation session. Smith made the statement that you cannot be angry and have your heart be in the right place, and that statement has really stuck with me. The idea of power struggles and forgiveness could become a topic for a reflective writing piece, a larger group discussion, a debate or even just a spring board for a conversation about how you should treat others. It would also be possible to look at the theme of forgiveness in literature.

I would like to explore the idea of using film as a research project. I think that creating a documentary about an event or to create a community narrative would be a good way to incorporate interdisciplinary learning into the classroom. By creating a community's narrative, students would be participating in place-based learning about their local history as well as getting community members involved in the classroom.

I would say the MLK event weekend was a positive experience that allowed for personal growth and understanding and provided ideas for ways to incorporate things learned from these events into the classroom.