If you would have asked me before this year what I saw myself doing as a career, I probably would've detailed a future in writing finished with a job as a professor of literature. I am a novelist at age seventeen and an accepted finalist for the 2015 Governor's Honors Program set to major in communicative arts. Books overflow the shelves of my room and spill onto the floor in neat stacks that seem ever-ready to topple over with their ever-increasing height. I find solace in the words of great poets, writers, and lyricists and often paste them on my walls. So, obviously, I have always been absolutely in love with, and truly appreciated the importance of literature to a human life.
And, I had never really considered how someone couldn't.
That was, until I began my journey as an intern at Davis Middle School teaching literature. It seemed each day held a new complaint with the students, and I began to ask myself how I could make them understand how vital literature is to their lives. And so, my essential question was born.
I learned that literature is important to a human life, and to education, as it is personal. It is the collection of shared and documented human experience, and it allows us to feel like we aren't quite so alone. It is an excellent source of solace and even advice. I defended this point to students with a personal anecdote about how important The Perks of Being a Wallflower is to me, which I feel truly reached them, as I am close to their age and they can relate to me. There is truly a book or a piece out there for everyone, and that first original feeling, that first inkling of a hope that we might not be so alone after all, is absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely vital for life, and to truly know companionship when an author halfway around the world makes sense of your world for the first time, is proof that it is important to integrate and prioritize literature in every level of education.
I learned that literature is important because it has been found in recent research by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to be the number one factor to consider when analyzing a child's future social mobility. This, I defended to students with research and multiple quotes.
Finally, I learned literature is important as it allows us to travel to distant lands and even forgotten time periods without leaving home, however cliche that might sound. I defended this to the students with a quote from Walt Disney, examples of personal favorite books that take place in different places/times like Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and a quote from their very own beloved assistant principal and my father, Mike McQueen.
See this research in action in my presentation! The slideshow can be found under the attachments tab and the presentation itself under the 'My Presentation' tab above.
And, I had never really considered how someone couldn't.
That was, until I began my journey as an intern at Davis Middle School teaching literature. It seemed each day held a new complaint with the students, and I began to ask myself how I could make them understand how vital literature is to their lives. And so, my essential question was born.
I learned that literature is important to a human life, and to education, as it is personal. It is the collection of shared and documented human experience, and it allows us to feel like we aren't quite so alone. It is an excellent source of solace and even advice. I defended this point to students with a personal anecdote about how important The Perks of Being a Wallflower is to me, which I feel truly reached them, as I am close to their age and they can relate to me. There is truly a book or a piece out there for everyone, and that first original feeling, that first inkling of a hope that we might not be so alone after all, is absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely vital for life, and to truly know companionship when an author halfway around the world makes sense of your world for the first time, is proof that it is important to integrate and prioritize literature in every level of education.
I learned that literature is important because it has been found in recent research by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to be the number one factor to consider when analyzing a child's future social mobility. This, I defended to students with research and multiple quotes.
Finally, I learned literature is important as it allows us to travel to distant lands and even forgotten time periods without leaving home, however cliche that might sound. I defended this to the students with a quote from Walt Disney, examples of personal favorite books that take place in different places/times like Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and a quote from their very own beloved assistant principal and my father, Mike McQueen.
See this research in action in my presentation! The slideshow can be found under the attachments tab and the presentation itself under the 'My Presentation' tab above.