Reading Martinez last week
reminded me of "But They Won't Let You Read!": A Case Study of
an Urban Middle School Male's Response to School Reading by Grace Enriquez, an
article I read during Thanksgiving break.
Martinez reflected, in part, on
how she believed her school experiences, largely influenced by standardized
testing, silenced her as a writer. Enriquez’s work features Derrick, a student
who has a similar argument. Derrick says his teachers will not “let you read.”
Derrick articulates his conclusion after noticing that his teacher seems to
champion reading, particularly reading for pleasure, prior to the
administration of the state test, but quickly moves on to other aspects of the
curriculum thereafter.
Derrick seems to say, “OK, the
teacher has to do what he has to do, and I do too,” as he decides to ignore
instruction partially in order to satisfy his appetite for books. Anyone who
has taught for a minute has seen the student who hides the book he/she cannot
stop reading inside the textbook the teacher has assigned. The question is what
assumptions might a teacher make about this student and why. Teachers at
Derrick’s school begin to see him as “distracted.” In the end, Enriquez asks us
to think about “how our messages and views about reading conflate and conflict
with one another” (p. 43).
Derrick’s case is personal to me
in large part because it reminds me so much of conversations I have had with my
own son about how he perceives education. I worry that the stories told about
black males and their literacy practices are too few and often too generic.
Awareness of this prompts Enriquez to note, “Derrick presents a different case:
a Black adolescent male who wants to read, who sees his formal education at
school as valuable, but who feels that challenges to his growth, enjoyment, and
success as a reader ironically stem from inside school walls, not outside them”
(p. 35). Enriquez’s words are best used to highlight the habit (and the
outcome) of ignoring boys like Derrick, “Derrick's situation as an adolescent
Black male who enjoys and values reading is more precarious, as current reform
policies zero in with monolithic understandings of Black male students and
compel schools to adopt blanket instructional practices that ignore and may
possibly thwart possibilities for students like Derrick” (p. 36).
Want to Read It?
"But They
Won't Let You Read!": A Case Study of an Urban Middle School Male'sResponse to School Reading by Grace Enriquez, Journal of Education • V O L U
M E 1 9 3 • N U M B E R 1 • 2013, pgs. 35-46
