Secondary English Methods

One of my favorite movies from childhood is The Pagemaster. In case you haven't seen it, the movie tells the story of Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin), an odd young boy who is practically afraid of his own shadow. This causes strain between Richard and his parents, who just want their son to be normal. While running an errand for his dad Richard gets caught in a thunderstorm and, fearing the lightening, takes refuge in a library. In the library Richard meets the quirky librarian, Mr. Dewey (Christopher Lloyd). This meeting is one of my favorite scenes of all time. In this scene Mr. Dewey gives Richard a library card, saying, "Richard Tyler, consider this your passport to the wonderful and quite unpredictable world of books." Of course the movie has the predictable Hollywood ending (Richard gains some courage and discovers the value of reading), but the Mr. Dewey's quote has always been what resonated with me.

During the first week of school Mrs. Taylor planned a "genre scavenger hunt" in the library. The activity had several purposes: to introduce the students to a variety of genres, to help them pick a book for their first book project, and to familiarize them with the school library. I was so excited about this activity when Mrs. Taylor told me about it, but seeing it in action was much not near as exciting as I had expected it to be. It seemed that none of these students had ever actually checked a book out from the library, and further more, none of them knew how it worked, nor were they interested in figuring it out! No one had ever given them their "passport." Then, third period (a 10th grade Pre-AP class) rolled around. Although this class seemed more interested than the regular English 10 classes did, there was still a lot of apathy.

I was so disappointed...until I saw something that really restored my faith. Students are only allowed to check out one book at a time. One of the students in the Pre-AP class approached the librarian's desk with two books in hand. At first she looked at him kind of quizzically, then a look of understanding overtook her. She looked at the student and said, "Oh, I know you'll finish both of those in time to return them." After that I knew I had to talk to this kid. Talking to him on the way back to the classroom, I realized that at the age of 16 he has read more than I have at the age of 21. This includes more of the classics (including Shakespeare...yuck!). From that moment on, I have always referred to him as The Pagemaster in my mind. This experience also helped me decide that one of my goals for the year, and in my future career, is to instill a love of reading in my students. I want to be Mr. Dewey.

(On another note, one of my students discovered this week that my last name fits perfectly into the Oscar Mayer jingle. I can only hope that I don't have to hear "Oh I wish I was a Niemeyer wiener" for the rest of the year...)