“Poetry humanizes – Poetry gives a human face to a time like this. Poetry gives eyes and a mouth and a voice to a time life this. Poetry records a time like this for future generations who want to know about a time like this in terms of the five senses, and in terms of the soul.”
~ Martin Espada
This past year, All Saints Literacy Center piloted a supplemental program called “Whole Person Literacy” focused on spiritual and cultural literacy based on concepts of knowing, understanding, and self-development. We had monthly activities that were carried out in pairs or in groups. Learners and tutors participating in the program gained knowledge and created meaning individually and socially as they took part in the activities. The needs of the whole person were explored through an alternative lens of literacy.
The complete Columbine narratives are included in Experiences of Columbine Parents: Finding a Way to Tomorrow (available through ProQuest UMI AAT 3161558). Detailed explanation of my approach to research may be found in my text Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach published by Palgrave Macmillan (2009, 2015). I have made available stories of experiences of educators involved in mass violence events, including shootings, natural disaster, and terrorist attack, in my book Reclaiming School in the Aftermath of Trauma published by Palgrave-Macmillan (2012).
“Pretend Reading” differs from culture to culture. It was a tradition and intervention by mothers who did not have formal education but pretended to read to their child.
All it took was some crumbled papers and a mother who would not allow her past to become her child’s future.
Such a nurturer was my mother who never saw the inside of a school. So she pretended to read to me by way of the oral tradition sharing stories of ancestors, respect for elders, traditions, resiliency and perseverance – sometimes even without having to look at the crumbled papers.
“How could this be happening in this safe, comfortable middle-class neighborhood, in a high school noted for academic excellence; where arts, music, and theater were prized; where parent involvement was without equal, and graduation rates were among the highest in the state. It was simply inconceivable, and yet it had happened . . . here, at Columbine.” Carolyn Lundsford Mears
A look can carry the weight of intention in silence.
It all happens in an instance as eyes meet to deny or affirm humanity.
It is a decoded nuance when diversity as the other and difference is viewed.
The poetic “La Mirada” (The Look) provides such internalized interpretations.