October 2019 – Alex Naeve

This is another self-reflective blog, assigned in a graduate seminar course on theories of reading.

In a way, I think that the material in this course has helped me consciously notice, articulate, and conceptualize many beliefs that I’ve held for a long time. One idea I’ve now come to wholly believe is, reading is a dynamic exchange, rather than a passive reception of information. As I discussed in Blog Post #1, reading has always been comfortable and relatively easy for me, and I think that this confidence also applies to my writing ability, which has always come intuitively.

It is both enlightening and disheartening to apply what I’m learning at SFSU to the courses I’m currently teaching at Hillcrest juvenile hall and San Quentin State Prison. I have never been more aware of the complexities in literacy disparities. I think there is a lot of identity conflict around some of this, as a proponent of social justice who is also a white woman, I acknowledge that there is probably some element of the white savior complex, because I do want to be considered “one of the ‘good’ white people” by my students of color (the overwhelming majority are either Black or Latino. I think that out of 41 students, maybe seven or eight are white. The fact that I only teach incarcerated men adds another layer of complication as well). Continue reading “Reading the World” →

This is a blog post assignment that I wrote for a graduate seminar course on theoretical backgrounds in teaching community college reading at SFSU.

I grew up in a home with two college educated parents—my mom has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Northwestern University, and my dad holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. I didn’t even realize college was optional until I was probably 14 or 15. Failure was most definitely not an option—and a “C” grade might as well have been an “F.” My parents are products of the early Baby Boomer generation, which means that we talked a lot about “good” schools and “bad” schools, and how education was the only way to get a “good job.” I never heard that someone might actually grow as a human being due to what they learned in school. I learned that one must do well in 5th grade so as to be placed in the “advanced” classes in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, which would set one up for advanced placement in high school, which would pave the way for admission to a “good” college, from which graduating would guarantee that one would not die poor and lonely. Continue reading “Words and Life” →