This page will be devoted to my personal digital project, which will itself be devoted to answering the question you see above. As an English major, it seems a given that less “essential” material in the English Language Arts should be taught, but what I learned the hard way from some very brief and informal questioning (mainly asking my family members who are at best first-generation Americans) is that the answer is much more fluid than I thought. The topics I’m referring to are not the fundamentals of reading and writing, but rather literature and poetry.
I spent my weekend celebrating my birthday with family in South Florida – and for my family, this meant nearly 30 people of Haitian descent, most of whom are immigrants or first-generation Americans. In Haiti, education is revered, and often difficult to acquire for those less fortunate (which is, unfortunately, the majority of the population). A former French colony, Haitian schools still use an approach that is a mixture primarily of Essentialist and Perrenialist philosophies. That said, I still thought they would back me up on the “classics” like Chaucer and Shakespeare. I was gravely mistaken. Their answers varied as widely as the ages represented (from mid 20’s to 60’s), and it confirmed for me that this is definitely the topic I want to explore with my first ever short film.
Sounds great! Getting some video interview responses from your family as to what they think is important in ELA will be both insightful and important. In fact, this kind of research might be something you could build upon for the future, should you be interested in graduate study.
dc