Vanessa A. Shafer@orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @allisonwyss @joyce @adaddinsane It's definitely biased in favour of the canon of dead white men. What's sad is that as society and school populations become more diverse, the assigned texts don't reflect that.
@orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @allisonwyss @joyce @adaddinsane Here in America I think schools cling to that particular canon because it's easier, safer in a way. There's nothing to make a majority of students uncomfortable. There's nothing that parents could find objectionable. It's an approach that isn't going to serve students well at all.
Allison Wyss@vashafer @orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @joyce @adaddinsane
Oh there's lots to find objectionable in all of it. It's just who it is finding it so and how hard you're looking for it.
@vashafer @orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @joyce @adaddinsane
But also. You know, when I decided as a brand new no-clout creative writing teacher that I was going to go off-canon and teach different sorts of stories in my classes, it was really hard. It was worthwhile. Of course it was! But I didn't have models for teaching those stories. I didn't have experts to back me up that these weird things I found by unknown writers were actually worth teaching.
@vashafer @orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @joyce @adaddinsane
I'm glad I do it. It would be wrong not to. But it's more work. And none of that extra work is fairly compensated or appreciated. Some institutions will back you up on it. Some will not. Many students will appreciate it. Many other students will be annoyed and complain about it.
@vashafer @orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @joyce @adaddinsane
Teaching just-published stories by writers no one has heard of (yet?), especially from non-dominant literary traditions and cultures has absolutely made me a better teacher, a better thinker, and a better writer. It has opened up everything about the way I approach writing and talking about writing. But's also terrifying. You have to be okay with making mistakes in front of people all the time.
@allisonwyss @orionkidder @WildTypeWriter @starbreaker @crcollins @joyce @adaddinsane I think we can learn so much from the non-dominant literary traditions and cultures. That's not to say that the dominant traditions should be ditched. Rather they should be supplemented.