Anchor Texts and Touchstone Experiences

Mixed in with my other favorite books, I have a stack of three written by Jonathan Kozol.  On top of the pile is Savage Inequalities, which I read for the first time quite a while ago, when we were living and teaching in Hesston, Kansas, a small rural community and my childhood home. 

The books I keep close to my desk: Each one changed me in
some way and continues to influence me.

In the first chapter of Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of public schools in East St. Louis.  His words have stayed with me over all these years, partly because they are as profound as they are disturbing, and partly because I have an indelible visual memory of East St. Louis, even though I have never visited it personally. 

Having a memory of a place I haven’t visited, may seem contradictory, but stay with me on this for a bit because it involves a story—and I promise I’ll get to my point before it’s done.

I have seen the St. Louis Arch at midnight
more often than during the day!

Rear View Mirrors and Interstates

When our oldest children were just toddlers, and we were living and working in Kansas, as soon as school let out for the holiday break in December, Lisa and I would load up the kids and start the journey from Central Kansas to see our family in Northern Indiana.

Since we were young and energetic, on those sometimes snowy or icy treks north, we would drive straight through night.  The first major city on the trip was Kansas City, and soon after midnight, we would come to St. Louis, which marked our halfway point.  Late at night the traffic would be light, so I would take I-70 straight through town, past the Arch and over the waters of the Mississippi.  Just after crossing the river, we would pass exit-ramps to East St. Louis.  From the raised interstate, I would look down into the darkened streets and recall what Kozol had written about the schools of the city below. 

Rear view mirrors allow us to look back while moving forward.

Even now, many years later, I can remember looking through the rear view mirror at our children sleeping in the back seat and recalling bits and pieces of what Kozol described in Savage Inequalities: the lack of funding, the lack of qualified teachers, the woefully inadequate facilities, and the stories of teachers and students who lived in the city below the interstate. 

The juxtaposition of what I knew my children would experience in school and the experience Kozol described was startling and has stayed with me over time.

A small sampling of Kozol’s words from Savage Inequalities:

The crowding of children into insufficient, often squalid spaces seems an inexplicable anomaly in the United States. Images of spaciousness and majesty, of endless plains and soaring mountains, fill our folklore and our music and the anthems that our children sing. “This land is your land,” they are told; and, in one of the patriotic songs that children truly love because it summons up so well the goodness and the optimism of the nation at its best, they sing of “good” and “brotherhood” “from sea to shining sea.” It is a betrayal of the best things that we value when poor children are obliged to sing these songs in storerooms and coat closets.

I credit Kozol with awakening in me an awareness that schools are very different across our nation, that things I take for granted and assumptions I have for my children are not universally true for all children and for all families. 

Anchors and Touchstones

Since those early years of teaching, many other authors and experiences have impacted my thinking and beliefs, but Kozol’s words still resonate and make up a part of who I am and what I believe as an educator. 

The reality is that certain authors and experiences are more important, more formative, more foundational than others.  Those of you reading this certainly have anchor texts and touchstone experiences that you could identify as pivotal to your growth as an educator.  These authors and experiences have informed, challenged, enlightened, and developed you as teachers and/or as administrators.  

They never go away.  Rather, they build on each other in sometimes contradictory ways, but eventually weave together to form rich understandings and deeply held beliefs.   Furthermore, anchor texts and touchstone experiences are used to filter, evaluate, and adapt new readings and experiences.

The Legend of the Touchstone calls for us to be reflective and
thoughtful about our past and present experiences.

I find it helpful to think of learning this way.  Each new learning is not something disconnected from previous knowledge.  It is not one new thing after another.  Rather, each new author or experience is layered over previous learning, blended into the larger picture, and contributes to building a richer and deeper understanding. 

Essential Questions

Take a few moments to reflect on those authors and experiences that have shaped who you are as an educator.  How would you answer these questions:

• Who are the authors that changed the way you think about education?
• What are the experiences that shaped you as an educator? 
• What have you learned from these anchor texts and touchstone experiences that forms the foundation of your beliefs about teaching and learning?

These are essential questions we hope to explore in the coming weeks or months.  Feel free to join the conversation and add to our tapestry of understanding.

Have a great week, HSE.

 Your HSE Teaching and Learning Team

• Jan Combs, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
• Stephanie Loane, Director of Elementary Education
• Tom Bell, Director of Special Education
• Jeff Harrison, Director of Educational Technology
• Phil Lederach, Director of Secondary Education