New York Soda Ban and Novels: Issues of Trust

"We trust our customers to make the choices that are best for them."

This tweet from McDonald's is short, yet its message sparks debate. How much trust should we place in people to make the right decisions? Does trust even factor into an issue of a consumer choosing to purchase a beverage? After all, it is their body and right to choose what they consume.  Yet while this discussion in and of itself is interesting and controversial, I have wondered how I would include this topic in an English lesson.  The article clearly sparks debate and it would be interesting to allow students to discuss the issue, engage with the text, piece it apart, and form what I'm sure would be strong opinions and lively debate.

But if I were to teach about the New York soda ban, I would want my students to dig deep--that is, to go beyond this issue of the banning of a beverage.  Here is where my key word comes in: trust.  As consumers of literature, we generally form strong opinions of a text--do we trust a narrator? Should we believe everything he or she tells us? It seems like a simple question yet perhaps this issue of trust becomes even more complex when we begin to form relationships with characters in novels.  When we become immersed in their thoughts or actions, we inevitably trust them and consider them a reliable lens through which to see the story unfold or we become skeptical of their words and actions and thus question them as a story progresses.  I think it is interesting to introduce this idea to students and make them aware that they have the choice as to whether they trust a character and also let them know that this perception can drastically change the ways in which they view the overarching themes of a story.

Let's think about contemporary fiction for a moment and consider a character with which many students will be familiar: Severus Snape from Harry Potter.  No doubt readers think of Snape differently from Book 1 to Book 7, as his actions vary drastically throughout the series.  By introducing students to a familiar character, I would hope to then dive into other texts with questionable yet dynamic characters: Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury...the list could go on.  As students begin to question the extent to which they trust  a character, I hope they see the importance of diving below the surface of a novel and grappling with characters in ways that help them to ask important questions about texts.  

Thus, just as it is beneficial to look beyond the issue of the banning of soda and into the implications this creates for us as consumers, it is also beneficial to look beyond the surface of a novel and not only engage with the text, but engage with the characters in ways that challenge us to think of stories in different ways.

Making Technology Exciting

As we talked about technology in class on Friday, I tried to recall my first encounter with technology in school.  And, I remember that technology was a something of a treat.  I distinctly remember shuffling down the hall to the computer lab in fourth grade, where once a week we were allowed to play "The Oregon Trail." Now, maybe this wasn't the most educational experience I could have initially had with technology, but I remember being excited because I got to use a computer.  I can't help but still wonder if technology should elicit this kind of excitement--shouldn't students see technology not simply as a means to achieve a result but as something that can help them explore their own learning?

When we consider this idea of technology as being exciting, it is important to consider what makes a student's work feel important. Is this something we as educators can do by using laptops and iPads in classrooms? Should students be required to publish material online? Here, we get at this idea that students should be held accountable for their work.  By posting an essay or interpretation online, perhaps a student will feel more accountable for their work because it is being recorded in a technology medium.  And, in an ideal world, all students would love publishing their work online for others to see. But, what about the students who are not as comfortable working in a technology medium? What if they prefer pen and paper? As educators, it seems wrong for us to ask students who are not comfortable having their work displayed to publish something on a website.  If using technology does not excite a student, then how do we bridge this gap? Do we find a new way to use technology or do we lessen its presence in our classrooms?

Yet we are teaching within a technology-ingrained society.  When students have iPhones, iPads, laptops, and Smartphones, how do we help them to see technology as exciting for learning? In an age where an everyday phrase is, "I'll just Google it," how do we make these devices into not just an everyday tool but one that is also essential to learning?  I hope to learn how to de-Facebook and de-Twitter technology so that students see technology as something that is not only useful for self-expression in their personal lives, but is perhaps a more powerful tool when combined with their education.  I want students to see technology as exciting--it isn't just something for their own pleasure, but is truly a useful tool that can carry them far in their educational careers.

So, what was your first experience with technology in school?