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The Middle Passage
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From: Shelby Wolf <wolfs>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 09:13:59 -0600 (MDT)
Dear Ginny and the CCBC community,
I've spent many hours studying The Middle Passage--pouring painfully over its illustrations, reading and rereading its powerful forward. I've also spent a fair amount of time encouraging my students-undergraduate and graduate students--to study its pages and consider its use in the classroom. A few years ago, I did a study on my preservice teachers and their preparation of multicultural book talks. I followed ten students in particular, and then asked two of the students, Darcy Ballentine and Lisa Hill, to join me in the analysis and write up of the work. The final article will appear in the fall journal of Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) and we'll present our work at the upcoming NCTE conference in Denver.
One of the students we followed was Luke (a pseudonym) who analyzed The Middle Passage for the class. Because of his insights as well as the power of the book we open and close our article with Feelings' text. However, here's a bit of the article that specifically addresses what Luke and his teaching partner found when they closely analyzed the Feelings' extraordinary book:
Luke and his partner were most deeply impacted by the visual aspects of The Middle Passage (Feelings, 1995). Even though they wrote that it was "very difficult to verbalize" their response, and that "language cannot describe the horror and pain that [Feelings] captures in his art," they tried to move the images into their own writing: "Once on the ship we witness the branding and the beatings, the rats and the rapes, the suffering and the suicides, the expiring of the weak and the executing of the rebellious. We watch the crew dumping cargo, Africans, overboard and the sharks waiting to feast on their remains" (2/17/97). Thus, their handout was filled with visual vocabulary -- "we witness" and "we watch" -- indicating the feeling that the reader/viewer is there, seeing and feeling the horror. And Luke and his partner upped the ante on the experience by using painful alliteration -- "branding/beatings," "rats/rapes," "suffering/suicides," and "expiring/executing," before breaking the pattern to stress the significance of the waiting sharks. They also used the word "cargo" for the Africans who are set off by commas, to emphasize the horror of such a word choice.
Their emphasis on painful word choice reflected their stance on the authenticity of the illustrations. In particular, they stressed how the horror portrayed in Feelings' illustrations was "not intended to entertain the reader, but to give insight and breathe reality into the plight of African Americans." They also quoted from their literature textbook to distinguish sensationalism, from Feelings' use of violence: "Any action may be made sensational, but important and even violent events can be described with accuracy and sensitivity" (Lukens, 1995, p. 79).
The accent on historical and visual accuracy was reiterated in the response of the people with whom Luke and his partner shared the text. Indeed, they wrote, "without a doubt, everyone that read the book found it very powerful and authentic." Of the four people they interviewed all said they'd never seen the book before. Jessica, a 13-year-old African American said that the book should be shared with children because, "People need to know what happened to prevent it from happening again." Her mother disagreed and closed the book, handing it back to Luke, explaining, "I don't want to look at this. It makes me sick." The two college students interviewed did want to look. Sheila, the African American student said,
It is very, very aesthetically pleasing, but it's-- it's painful! It is a whole history. He didn't leave out anything.... That's not what they teach US (and she pointed to herself).... Look at these slaves...jumping overboard. ANYTHING to defy the degradation, this horrible, horrible subtraction from everything that is positive and wonderful in our lives. Mike, the Caucasian student, also focused on aspects of missing history suggesting,
I find it kind of amazing that I was taught the Golden Triangle. You learn that is slaves from Africa to the Caribbean, then sugar up to the North, and then rum back to Africa. That is all that you learn [about] slaves: "Hey, guys, do you want to take a trip?" I feel cheated in my school career that I haven't been exposed to anything. (2/17/97)
The question of exposure became a key issue for Luke when he tried to share the book with an elementary class and was refused:
When I asked a 2nd grade teacher in [a local school] if she wanted to use the book during a unit on Africa and great African American heroes, she didn't think the book was appropriate because of the violent content. I observed a lesson that was being taught about the Middle Passage, [and] issues that dealt with violence or abuse were dusted over completely. Most of the people that we interviewed about this book felt that it was important to show the African American perspective. Because of the extreme emotional material presented, others were unwilling to discuss it or even look at it. As Takaki (1993) states, "By allowing us to see events from the viewpoints of different groups, a multicultural curriculum enables us to reach toward a more comprehensive understanding of American History" (p. 4). When one ignores the pain and violence of the African American culture one ignores the true history of an entire race of people. (2/17/97) The argument above is a particularly revealing one. First, Luke's use of Takaki demonstrated the impact of the class readings on his thinking. But even more important, he had to deal with the shock of a teacher's refusal, who not only rejected the text, but "dusted over" the historical reality of the middle passage "completely." Although we had talked in class again and again about how rarely classroom teachers used authentic multicultural literature, witnessing the rejection of such a powerful text as well as observing the lightness of the teacher's lesson seemed to bring our talk to life.
Finally, Luke and his partner were influenced by the critical reviews of the text that were uniformly positive. Of one, they wrote,
"Rudine Sims Bishop [1996b] concludes her review by stating that the long awaited question about what happened to the captives who were taken away from the African continent is a singular achievement, and that it deserves a place among the major texts of American history." Indeed, calling the book "a triumph of survival," they concluded their handout with this statement: "It is amazing that a book in such high [critical] regard is not embraced by teachers of multicultural literature" (2/17/97).
Returning to Ginny's question -- "Can some of you attest to its impact on middle school and/or high school youth? on adults? "-- I think Luke's work gives us some insight into the text's potential influence. Still, I believe that the text can and should be considered for use in the elementary school as well. While this is a text that many teachers of young children might avoid, I would agree with Luke that: "When one ignores the pain and violence of the African American culture one ignores the true history of an entire race of people."
Shelby
Shelby A. Wolf Home: University of Colorado at Boulder 5579 Mesa Top Court School of Education Boulder, CO 80301 124 Education Building Campus Box 249 (303) 581?46 Boulder, CO 8030949 (303) 581w88 (FAX)
(303) 492?60 wolfs at spot.Colorado.edu
Received on Sun 20 Jun 1999 10:13:59 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 09:13:59 -0600 (MDT)
Dear Ginny and the CCBC community,
I've spent many hours studying The Middle Passage--pouring painfully over its illustrations, reading and rereading its powerful forward. I've also spent a fair amount of time encouraging my students-undergraduate and graduate students--to study its pages and consider its use in the classroom. A few years ago, I did a study on my preservice teachers and their preparation of multicultural book talks. I followed ten students in particular, and then asked two of the students, Darcy Ballentine and Lisa Hill, to join me in the analysis and write up of the work. The final article will appear in the fall journal of Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) and we'll present our work at the upcoming NCTE conference in Denver.
One of the students we followed was Luke (a pseudonym) who analyzed The Middle Passage for the class. Because of his insights as well as the power of the book we open and close our article with Feelings' text. However, here's a bit of the article that specifically addresses what Luke and his teaching partner found when they closely analyzed the Feelings' extraordinary book:
Luke and his partner were most deeply impacted by the visual aspects of The Middle Passage (Feelings, 1995). Even though they wrote that it was "very difficult to verbalize" their response, and that "language cannot describe the horror and pain that [Feelings] captures in his art," they tried to move the images into their own writing: "Once on the ship we witness the branding and the beatings, the rats and the rapes, the suffering and the suicides, the expiring of the weak and the executing of the rebellious. We watch the crew dumping cargo, Africans, overboard and the sharks waiting to feast on their remains" (2/17/97). Thus, their handout was filled with visual vocabulary -- "we witness" and "we watch" -- indicating the feeling that the reader/viewer is there, seeing and feeling the horror. And Luke and his partner upped the ante on the experience by using painful alliteration -- "branding/beatings," "rats/rapes," "suffering/suicides," and "expiring/executing," before breaking the pattern to stress the significance of the waiting sharks. They also used the word "cargo" for the Africans who are set off by commas, to emphasize the horror of such a word choice.
Their emphasis on painful word choice reflected their stance on the authenticity of the illustrations. In particular, they stressed how the horror portrayed in Feelings' illustrations was "not intended to entertain the reader, but to give insight and breathe reality into the plight of African Americans." They also quoted from their literature textbook to distinguish sensationalism, from Feelings' use of violence: "Any action may be made sensational, but important and even violent events can be described with accuracy and sensitivity" (Lukens, 1995, p. 79).
The accent on historical and visual accuracy was reiterated in the response of the people with whom Luke and his partner shared the text. Indeed, they wrote, "without a doubt, everyone that read the book found it very powerful and authentic." Of the four people they interviewed all said they'd never seen the book before. Jessica, a 13-year-old African American said that the book should be shared with children because, "People need to know what happened to prevent it from happening again." Her mother disagreed and closed the book, handing it back to Luke, explaining, "I don't want to look at this. It makes me sick." The two college students interviewed did want to look. Sheila, the African American student said,
It is very, very aesthetically pleasing, but it's-- it's painful! It is a whole history. He didn't leave out anything.... That's not what they teach US (and she pointed to herself).... Look at these slaves...jumping overboard. ANYTHING to defy the degradation, this horrible, horrible subtraction from everything that is positive and wonderful in our lives. Mike, the Caucasian student, also focused on aspects of missing history suggesting,
I find it kind of amazing that I was taught the Golden Triangle. You learn that is slaves from Africa to the Caribbean, then sugar up to the North, and then rum back to Africa. That is all that you learn [about] slaves: "Hey, guys, do you want to take a trip?" I feel cheated in my school career that I haven't been exposed to anything. (2/17/97)
The question of exposure became a key issue for Luke when he tried to share the book with an elementary class and was refused:
When I asked a 2nd grade teacher in [a local school] if she wanted to use the book during a unit on Africa and great African American heroes, she didn't think the book was appropriate because of the violent content. I observed a lesson that was being taught about the Middle Passage, [and] issues that dealt with violence or abuse were dusted over completely. Most of the people that we interviewed about this book felt that it was important to show the African American perspective. Because of the extreme emotional material presented, others were unwilling to discuss it or even look at it. As Takaki (1993) states, "By allowing us to see events from the viewpoints of different groups, a multicultural curriculum enables us to reach toward a more comprehensive understanding of American History" (p. 4). When one ignores the pain and violence of the African American culture one ignores the true history of an entire race of people. (2/17/97) The argument above is a particularly revealing one. First, Luke's use of Takaki demonstrated the impact of the class readings on his thinking. But even more important, he had to deal with the shock of a teacher's refusal, who not only rejected the text, but "dusted over" the historical reality of the middle passage "completely." Although we had talked in class again and again about how rarely classroom teachers used authentic multicultural literature, witnessing the rejection of such a powerful text as well as observing the lightness of the teacher's lesson seemed to bring our talk to life.
Finally, Luke and his partner were influenced by the critical reviews of the text that were uniformly positive. Of one, they wrote,
"Rudine Sims Bishop [1996b] concludes her review by stating that the long awaited question about what happened to the captives who were taken away from the African continent is a singular achievement, and that it deserves a place among the major texts of American history." Indeed, calling the book "a triumph of survival," they concluded their handout with this statement: "It is amazing that a book in such high [critical] regard is not embraced by teachers of multicultural literature" (2/17/97).
Returning to Ginny's question -- "Can some of you attest to its impact on middle school and/or high school youth? on adults? "-- I think Luke's work gives us some insight into the text's potential influence. Still, I believe that the text can and should be considered for use in the elementary school as well. While this is a text that many teachers of young children might avoid, I would agree with Luke that: "When one ignores the pain and violence of the African American culture one ignores the true history of an entire race of people."
Shelby
Shelby A. Wolf Home: University of Colorado at Boulder 5579 Mesa Top Court School of Education Boulder, CO 80301 124 Education Building Campus Box 249 (303) 581?46 Boulder, CO 8030949 (303) 581w88 (FAX)
(303) 492?60 wolfs at spot.Colorado.edu
Received on Sun 20 Jun 1999 10:13:59 AM CDT
