women in fairy tales

My students have posted some fantastic stories of women that come from their cultures. In English/European culture, there are so many fairytales where a woman is rescued by a man: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel. But it's interesting that the wicked person in the fairytales is often an old women. So much of what we're taught about the roles of men and women comes through stories like this that we read as children. Paula Gunn Allen talks about the stories through which her mother taught her the role of women. These included strong images of women as fire bringer, sacred bundle bringer and creator.
I loved fairy tales as a child, and I still do. But I want to be careful that I don't impart values that I disagree with to my daughter.

The end (of the novel we're reading)

We just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird in class, and, boy, was it something. This is the third or fourth time I've taught this book, and I haven't gotten bored. It's so rich on so many levels.
I like the ending. You know right from the start of the book that the end is going to be about how Jem gets his arm broken, and it is. I don't feel like I need to know anymore about the charaters after Scout stands on the Porch and looks at the world from Boo Radley's perspective. My only regret is that Harper Lee never wrote another book. But I don't want a sequel to this one. I know what happens to Scout and Jem: they grow up to be right thinking citizens.

Justice

Today I asked my students to write about injustices in the world and what people can do to change them. We're reading To Kill A Mockingbird, and we just got through with the trial, where Tom Robinson doesn't get justice. Injustice exists on so many levels in society. I don't know that I see it all, but I try to be aware of it. Sometimes I am the one inflicting injustice, not on purpose, but because I forget, as Atticus says and Scout learns, to step into someone else's shoes. And sometimes, justice isn't what's required at all, but mercy. I actually try to be pretty fair or just in my dealings with students. However, I need to remind myself to be merciful at times, too.
Once injustice in the world at large: my friend who gets harassed by the police for nothing at all just because he looks Mexican. (oddly enough, he's not.) He used to drive a big, old car, and one day he was pulled over under a tree waiting for the overheated old engine to cool down when the police stopped and ordered him on the ground. He managed to convince them of his innocence. Another night he stopped to help a woman in distress and other people thought he was the one who was distressing her. Even now, when he drives a nicer car, he still gets bothered.
Other injustices are being done to so many people throughout the world. And the thing about injustice is, it's done by the people in power. Atticus says that someone who cheats a black person is trash. I'd say nowadays that anyone who takes advantage of their position of power to hurt another person is wrong. Of course, later, Atticus tells Scout that you shouldn't hate anyone, even Hitler. Which makes doing right even harder. Sometimes hating is just the easiest thing to do, but that doesn't make it the best.

Childhood Memories

Reading To Kill A Mockingbird, I think about my own childhood. My first day of school- I didn't know how to read, but I had a new bookbag. I don't really remember it- remember more the picture that was taken, me standing tall beside the back porch, my new bag over my shoulder, my hair short and curly, and something in my hand- my recess snack perhaps? I look nervous or serious, and faded, but that's the film from the 1970's. It's always off color.
I don't think I learned to read until the first grade. We were taught that when we could reach our arm across our head to touch the opposite ear then we were old enough to read. Later, reading No Flying in the House, I tried to kiss my elbows, hoping I was a fairy who could fly. I wanted to swoop down the hill to school instead of taking the stairs carved into the hill. (My family was notorious for leaving the house when the first bell rang, scurrying down the hill and slipping into our seats before the five minute tardy bell.)

In summers we ran free in ways that nowadays children can't. We'd go till lunch, and sometimes take a picnic with us to be gone all day. My friends and I played pirates on the lake, paddling the canoe from one end to the other. Sometimes I played with my older brother, but usually when other friends weren't around. I got left out when he and my sister ganged up on me. When we were very young we played together more- school, and church and restaurant. My brother married the neighbor girl in a ceremony performed by my older sister. I played the piano. We served whole courses in our restaurant with the only ingredient graham crackers. My sister cut my leg fringing my cowgirl skirt for some game we played.

There was no haunted house in my small town, but there were hot steams. One was the path where Analisa's father had buried the mad dog. For years I ran full tilt from one road to the next on that path, with the ghost of the dog nippin at my heels. Other paths were scary too- crossed by snakes and other scary things who lurked in wait for me to walk oblivously by. They never got me though.
Some scary things I knew. I was afraid alot and would have quailed at any Boo. Other scary things I didn't know about until years later- grown up, I understood about the Mr. Radleys and stepped into some other shoes.

Great Teachers

Today in class we read David Sedaris' short story "Me Talk Pretty One Day" about his sadistic French teacher. Then we read a selection from Pat Conroy's "The Lords of Discipline" about what he considers a great teacher. I think he might have considered the French teacher great because she was an adversary and conquerer of her students. In addition, the classroom had "a highly oxygenated atmosphere, aclimate of intemperance, ... and feverish melodrama."
My students than brainstormed about what a great teacher is. One group didn't want me to be all of these things, however.
Here's their lists (I cleaned up the spelling but not the grammar) [My comments in these brackets]:
kind
extra helping the student
fair (no discrimination)
teach/make the class more exciting/not boring
explain everything the student ask clearly
willingness to assist
good speaker and listener
knows how to keep the boundaries
is always fair
not to be racism
keep smart [a reference to Conroy's wanting teachers to make him smart?]
willing to teach [Unfortunately this isn't always the case]
good speakers that can grab your attention
knows how to keep the boundaries between a student and teacher relationship
someone that is not racist
someone that make you challenged
great personality
funny
creative
organized
make good atmosphere
give knowledge to students in an easy understanding way
discipline
responsible in their works
helpful
available for students when they need help
challenge the students
patient
make student active in the class
giving more homework [this one is crossed out]
to have a large knowledge of the subject
find a good way to make a student understand the topic
being understable [understandable?]
bringing a dynamic environment
encourage student to do better (speak to them)
making students feel comfortable
well-prepared
care
understand
make students smart
confident
active
friendly

Wow! I don't know if I can be all these things. For me, a great teacher definitely challenges me. But, I also think a great teacher is one that remembers her humanity and maintains it. What do you think?