Listen to the poem “I, Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez: My students and I just read this poem last week alongside Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” and Langston Hughes’s “I, Too.” In his poem, Whitman celebrates the dignity of the working class person as an embodiment of American values. Hughes then enters theContinue reading “I, Too, Sing America”
Author Archives: calebjwestbrook
How Deconstruction Can Still Be a Form of Privilege
Whereas many white evangelicals and former evangelicals are in a painful season of deconstructing their belief system… evangelicals and former evangelicals of color have an additional gargantuan task: decolonizing their faith.
Forgiveness: A Journey, not a Moment
A few weeks ago I read the social media post of a prominent pastor, someone whose work and ministry I respect. To paraphrase, he stated that unforgiveness is a form of idolatry in which an individual worships their hurt more than Christ. You know the kind of post, the mic drop that leaves nothing toContinue reading “Forgiveness: A Journey, not a Moment”
Protesting is American, Just Ask Thoreau
These days are divisive in the US. In addition to mask-wearing, schooling complications, and the efficacy of various vaccines, everyone has an opinion about the protests (whether they talk about it or not) and the controversies related to them: kneeling during the national anthem, removing Confederate monuments, defunding police, and more. According to the InternationalContinue reading “Protesting is American, Just Ask Thoreau”
Sacrificing Our Sacred Cows: Rethinking the Literary Canon in Secondary English
In my class, I refer to literature in two categories: Real Lit and Junk Lit. Real Lit means texts that you need to unpack, that have layers, that speak to the human condition. Junk Lit is mostly comprised of those free titles on the Amazon e-books list—you read them fast, but neverContinue reading “Sacrificing Our Sacred Cows: Rethinking the Literary Canon in Secondary English”
Thoughts on Using Social Media As a Platform for Change
Some argue that posting ideology to social media is pointless; people are too entrenched in their own thinking for it to make a difference. And that’s probably true for the most part. However, I believe that I am a product of the power of one’s voice on social media platforms. IContinue reading “Thoughts on Using Social Media As a Platform for Change”
The Beauty of Complexity
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard’s Pulitzer Prize winning book (1975), she writes the following: The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork–for it doesn’t ….–but that it all flows so freely wild,Continue reading “The Beauty of Complexity”
10 Years Ago Today: “loos’d of limits and imaginary lines”
*Follow this journey on my former (now inactive) blog: Europe 2010 My memory is hazy since my departure for Europe ten years ago (to the day). I can’t remember all the sensations of saying goodbye to my parents at the airport, laden with my brand new North Face 60 liter backpack, stuffed to the breakingContinue reading “10 Years Ago Today: “loos’d of limits and imaginary lines””
Stay Curious
“How do you fight cynicism? Stay curious.” This is my third year teaching at a school in the Kansas City area. Each of the past two years we have begun back-to-school teacher training with a sermon from a local pastor, a message reminding us of our duty to mold the children and young men andContinue reading “Stay Curious”
Why Poetry Is Still Important (Period).
Recently I wrapped up a unit on poetry both for my ninth graders and tenth graders. I’m going to rag on them a bit (they know how much I love them–I often joke that sarcasm is my love language, so if I don’t sass you, we’re probably not too close). The reason is that IContinue reading “Why Poetry Is Still Important (Period).”
a great, real place 