Retro Post: Tom Saywer Proves Its Worth

First Post of the Day

Still no time to write!

Also originally posted in Teachinmama, my other journal/blog, Jerrick returns in this post as a 4th grader.

Tom Sawyer Proves Its Worth, originally published January 17, 2013

Last August, as part of the state's new push to get kids reading better, I was given a shipment of several boxes of books for my class, most of which were DRIVEL. (The irony!)  First I cried, and then I got mad at being told I would have to read those instead of the children's classics my kids love and do so much with.

Fortunately, I have a wise principal who was fully aware of what my students did with those classics. When I came to her with my frustrations about the new books, I used Tom Sawyer as an example of what we were reading, and how those other books couldn't come close in vocabulary, plot, character development, etc. to it and the other classics I used. She told me to go ahead and continue on with them and whisked those other boxes of books away the very next day.

Today, Jerrick came up to me with a huge smile on his face and Tom Sawyer in his hands. "Mrs. I!" he cried. "I am at the place where Tom is attending his own funeral. This book is so funny - I can't wait to read the rest of this chapter." And he went back to his desk and buried his nose in that book.

Jerrick arrived a year ago as a 4th grader who had no love of reading. He got started reading classics, became hooked, and now he's reading some of the best of the best.

I highly doubt he would be reading high level books such as Tom Sawyer and others had he had to endure those other books that were originally intended for our class. Thank goodness for my principal's wisdom!

And how nice to have received his most recent message telling me he still loved Classics!

Treasures from Formers

This is one of those "emergency posts" that I write in advance for days just like today - I've got out of town family staying with me, an extra house-dog for the week, an oil change, a vet appointment, my cleaning lady is coming, and we're doing a pitch in dinner this evening at Curt and Vanessa's and I need to make apple crisp for dessert.

Hope to be back tomorrow - stay 'tooned!

I will stay in touch with any former student who asks me to - the answer is always yes. I never ask them as I think that that puts them into an awkward position. So, when one requests to get in contact, it is a big day for me.

Last week I received two messages from formers. Both are adults now, out of school, and living the adult life. As this blog began as my personal journal and still very much is, I am recording what they had to say. Their words held great meaning for me.

Jerrick M. sends me messages a couple of times a year. He dropped by the day I retired to thank me for being his teacher and gave me a copy of one of his (and my) favorite children's classics - The One Hundred and One Dalmatians. What a wonderful way to begin my retirement!

One of the hallmarks of my classroom was a curriculum I wrote around children's classic literature. The students had to read one classic per semester and then write a paper that they presented to the class along with a project. We also studied Greek and Latin roots, learning several a week and exploring how they influence our language to this day. 

Jerrick reminded me of both of those in his most recent message. 

Of course I was crying by the time I finished reading his note. 

Another note with pictures came from NM.  She had just given birth to her first child and sent me this sweet baby picture.

I looked at the name on the knitted blanket and paused. Had NM really done what I thought she had?? 

NM then sent me this text:

I still remember the project she did for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 4th or 5th grade (it was a two year class) and how, when she was in high school, NM popped into my classroom after school one day with a gift - a Barbie doll portraying Alice.

She had loved that book so much and I am pretty sure I still have that doll. I'll look, and if I do, I will send it to NM for little baby Alice.

I wrote the curriculum for the Children's Classics Project because I was tired of Captain Underpants and its ilk - I knew there were much better books out there to read. And so I used that program to introduce my students to engaging literature that had stood the test of time.

Never did I imagine getting a letter from a 25 year old man who still loved it, or a woman who enjoyed a book so much that she named her baby after it.

Talk about the power and impact of good literature.

And just in case you are interested, at the end of every school year, my current students made up a list of their favorite classics that they suggested the incoming students read. Here's one from around 2015.

There are some really great books on there - have you read any of them? I haven't read A Little Princess or White Fang, but I can vouch for the rest of them! (And I do plan to read those two books soon!)

Next up?  A post about how I had to fight to keep using The Children's Classics Program with my students and the ally who made it happen.

Stay 'tooned!