Blog Post Five: Chike's School Days, The Deep River, and To New York.

What makes a name important? What makes a culture stand out? What are the consequences of assimilating to other cultures that are different from your own? Examples of literature that explore these are Chike’s School Days by Chinua Achebe, The Deep River by Bessie Head and the poem To New York by Leopold Sedar Senghor. I think, for all of these, I would emphasize the themes of how the roles of culture and the beautiful and sometimes unfortunate effects of those changes and/or assimilation into a culture and their traditions.

I think for teachers in a classroom setting, Chike’s School Days is a good example of how the mixing of cultural beliefs and customs can sometimes cause strife among the members. I think, if I were to align the story with the teaching standards in Arizona, I would have the students analyze how the characters interact with each other and how that influences the text. I would then ask the students if they or any of their family members are coming or have come from a different country. If so, how have the culture norms changed and what was difficult to adjust to? I would ask them if there are certain naming traditions that are important in their cultures and ask them to share what they are and why they are important?

 

CULTURE + TRADITION = BEUATIFUL, UNIQUE, WONDERFUL HUMANITY

I think for To New York I would again use the same themes of migration/assimilation and culture. I would ask the students to annotate it and pick out things that they find important within the poem. I would then ask them to analyze how the writer’s descriptions in the poem change as it goes on. I would ask the students why they think the author’s tone changes. I would ask them to relate the poem to a time in their lives where things were originally not what they thought it would be and how that changed the way they viewed it.

The Deep River is a good example of a person’s and a culture’s connection, interaction and their view of traditions. I would have the students pick out all the instances where the characters are acknowledging or interacting with each other and how that changes the storyline. I would ask them to analyze the plot and its development of the characters. I would ask them if they thought that the young king being exiled was the right thing to do, in the run, or if the cultural rules should have been changed, in his case? I think that I would connect the theme of tradition to nowadays and ask the students if they there is anything that they think is unacceptable in today’s culture and if there is, should it be that way still?

        Another way to connect this to popular culture would be to ask the students the following questions on the hyperlink provided: http://globalopps.org/questions-to-ask-about-culture/

These questions would be useful for all the readings in this section because all of them, in one way or another, have deal with culture.

      In conclusion, I think that cultures and traditions play a huge role in who are as individuals and who we are as a society. They are the backbone for our lives and what we become. Culture is something that is amazing and beautiful in itself and each and every culture should be celebrated for its uniqueness.