I'm in Toronto for a critical literacy workshop my friend and colleague Vivian Vasquez invited me to participate in. I'm looking forward to showing the documentary David and I did on Lynn Gatto, A Life Outside, and to see what they say about Elliott's performance clips.
I'm stretching myself a bit to include "youth" literacies, but he's such a great example of what youth are doing with language and literacy in spite of school. My students really engaged with him and are genuinely committed to finding ways to teach that can engage the "Elliotts" in their classrooms. He's such a smart kid, one that school has simply failed. Literacy, performance poetry in particular, and his commitment to it has inspired him to recommit to school success even though he sees it as something he just has to do. That we still have to tell kids they just have to get through school seems unethical to the extreme. What can we do to change this stance? I can't buy into the US government and private corporations' attempts at dismantling public education, so I guess I have to believe schools are worth the trouble.
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