Webb Chapter 2

The chapter dealing with homelessness in Literature and Lives was an influential one. I thoroughly enjoyed Webb's story of his personal experience and interactions with a homeless man near his house and found that it was, to a certain degree, rather enlightening (or at least entertaining). Using controversial issues in your classroom to encourage discussion among your students is a strategy that I look forward to using. I strongly believe that learning, even in a public school setting (perhaps, especially in a public school setting), facilitates learning on a whole new level. Not only are students involved with literature and the "content expectations," but they are also forced to evaluate their personal feelings and beliefs about a whole range of issues facing our society. On page 15 Webb writes, "It was evident from our discussion that the problem of homelessness was not only close at hand, but also something students had strong feelings about." He goes on to say, "I sensed that exploring the issues the students were raising would take us deeper, engaging us in new kinds of critical thinking about the world and our places in it." The author suggests that dealing with controversial issues in the classroom, as difficult as this may be for most teachers, is a crucial part in the facilitation of the growing knowledge and understanding of the world around them. It is easy to understand why some teachers might struggle with the application of this idea because the chances of alienating or offending certain students is greater when you deal with such issues, but I think that the benefits of making them culturally aware far outweigh the downfalls of a few angry students or parents. The activity where students were asked to write 'personal' responses to a text from the perspective of someone else seems like a good way to start discussion about controversial issues. "When I have taught about serious, difficult, or potentially overwhelming issues like the Holocaust, apartheid, or homelessness, I know that my students stand to gain vital cultural knowledge and significant academic benefit, but I find that I worry about how such heavy topics will affect them emotionally," (page 19). Obviously, dealing with these issues is not an easy task, but I believe that exposing students to discussions about these topics will help to fight the ignorance and bias that seems to plague our society at times.