HalWLanse's blog

The Devil’s minions are at work in America. I’m speaking of the ubiquitous organized religious groups that get off on condemning queer youth (in God’s name of course) to hellfire and damnation, often driving them to suicide in the process. One such group consists of high school teens as described in THE GOD BOX by Alex Sanchez. As a secondary school teacher and staff developer, I can attest to the fact that such bigotry runs rampant among today’s youth even in a so-called sophisticated town like mine: New York City.

Who are you? There’s no definitive answer. Not in David Leavitt’s universe. An individual, the author reveals, is a different person, depending on who’s doing the perceiving. Leavitt, who played saucy tricks with persona in ARKANSAS (a fictional character called David Leavitt trades blowjobs for term papers) now gives us a sophisticated and entrancing look at the question of persona in his semi-historical novel THE INDIAN CLERK.

This begins my yearlong series discussing the queer literary canon. I hope we all read, discuss and love queer literature more and more.
--Dr. Hal

Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts
By Essex Hemphill

i

We are not always
the bravest sons
our fathers dream.
Nor do they always
dream of us.
We don't always
recognize him
if we have never
seen his face.
We are suspicious
of strangers.
Question:
is he the one?

ii

I stand waist deep
in the decadence of forgetting.
The vain act of looking the other way.
Insisting there can be peace

Multi-tasking, or as the ancients called it: monkey mind, is a disease that has many consequences. One is the impact is has on youngsters. Kids are so inundated with media that their minds jump from metaphorical branch to metaphorical branch without ever resting. One of the consequences is that many children have trouble reading. Experts have coined a term: reading stamina. This is the educational field's version of the one-pointed-mind: the ability to stay with a text for extended periods of time while putting off extraneous thoughts. Reading, then, is a form of mindfulness.

We are entering a dangerous time for children—summer! No,I’m not talking about swimming accidents or mosquito bites. I’m talking about summer reading loss. Many children’s reading scores erode over the summer due to lack of practice. Yes, it’s true. Unless you take action now, your children will return to school with weaker skills. University of Florida researchers Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington warn that the poorer the family the larger the summer reading loss will be.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/summer_reading.htm

Want to help your teen read better? The following guidelines for adolescent readers can help.

READING STAMINA: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

Start with books that interest you. Later, when your stamina is better you can read more challenging books.

Start with fiction or narrative nonfiction (nonfiction in story form). You’re better off reading narratives (books told in story form with a beginning, middle and end) when building your stamina.

Teens must read at least two hours per day if they are to build their reading skills. Schools should be part of this process but most often they aren't. Under these circumstances, taking up the slack at home becomes very important. You cannot force adolescents to read. You can only entice them. This means you must provide them with books they find interesting. Reading is like meditating: it works if one builds concentration slowly over time and if it's pleasurable. Here are some links to websites where you can find a range of interesting young adult (YA) fiction.