Hey All... Steve here. First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone (especially to those in the Totally Joe Lit Circle). I was unable to attend class Thursday because I have completely lost daycare for my son. It is a long story and you can read about it on my blog if you want to. Anyway, I thought I would find a "misfits" picture to go along with my post. These high-tops are more along the lines of Glenn Danzig's Misfits, rather than James Howe's, but still, they are "Totally" cool!
I'm sure that many of you have read The Misfits (the prequel to Totally Joe). I felt that I had to read it before I read Joe, in order to really get a sense of what Joe was all about. I am so glad that I did!
Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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I found that I could so relate to the theme of The Misfits. I wish the Misfits and Joe could have been around when I was in middle school! I know that this is a particularly difficult time for most kids. Misfits is narrated by Joe's friend, Bobby Goodspeed "the fat kid." Bobby and Joe, along with Skeezie and Addie, form a group together known as "the gang of five." If you read Joe, you will find out why "the gang of five" and not "the gang of four"... but anyway, the group does something important in the small middle school of "Paintbrush Falls," NY... they take a stand against the names that they have been called. I'm sure many of us have been made fun of in school because of differences... (I was the fat, nerdy kid.) The biggest problem is not the names that we were called, but how some of us let these names define us. Bobby finds this to be true when he has a talk with an adult who says,
"I believed every name I was called in school and took them with me into the rest of my life... We're all so ready to believe the worst about ourselves, we just accept [these names] without even thinking about what they mean or even if they're true" (232).
I carried bitter resentment with me for years against classmates and a school system that would allow my private hell. It happened right under the noses of teachers and was even perpetuated by them in some cases. This post and the paper that I am writing is cathartic for me in many ways, but I also carry with me this hope... a "pedagogy of possibility" if you will, that the lives of many students will become brighter because of the attitudes that WE will take with us into our schools and into our classrooms. In the words of Addie, "revenge is a paltry weapon when confronted with the arsenal of truth" (134).
The most important lesson that one could learn from The Misfits, is not to let words or others define us. Russel Banks said this fundamental truth at Cortland that "We aren't who we think we are and we are all going to die." Joe's friend Bobby Goodspeed has this to say about knowing oneself:
This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it-- your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all (124).
As I read Joe, I took Bobby's fundamental truth with me. Totally Joe is written from the perspective of Joe Bunch himself, in the form of an alphabiography assignment for his ELA class. Not only is Joe's approach and perspective unique, Joe is a unique individual as well... and he is quite comfortable in being who he is... (one of the fundamental truths of the story).
I read your posts about Joe, and I know that some of you are not quite comfortable with the topic of LGBTQ YA Lit. Some of you also think that it is it is too early for Joe to come out or even define himself as "gay." In my research and in my experience, I have found that there is a definite need for us to talk about this topic in our classrooms. I had a friend "come out" to me in 7th grade, so I know that it is not beyond the realm of possibility for someone to identify as gay in middle school. Middle school is the time when we all begin to become increasingly aware of our sexuality and it is a difficult time for all. Joe Bunch says of Middle School, that it "is like being trapped in a reality show where there's no way off the island and you're always a loser" (94). I'm sure that most of us have felt this way about middle school. As for the need to talk about this topic in our classrooms, this was very clear to me from what I learned in Tamara's "Death seminar." Garafolo et. al. (1999) found that "46% of all gay youth have attempted suicide" and that "Students who are LGBTQ are 3.41 times more likely to report a suicide attempt" (as cited in Fisher 2005, ps 384-385). It saddens me as I wonder exactly how many students have attempted and not reported.
In the research that I did for my seminar on LGBTQ YA Lit, I found that not only are some teachers uncomfortable with talking about this topic in their classrooms, some teachers actually look away when confronted with the problem:
For LGBT students nationwide, discrimination and harassment are the rule, not the exception. A study of Massachusetts’s high school students reported that close to one-third of gay teens had been threatened in the past month with a weapon at school, compared to 7 % of heterosexual students (Garofalo et al., 1998). A 1993 study revealed that 97% of students in a Boston public school said they heard homophobic remarks on a regular basis from their peers, with 53% reporting homophobic comments by their teachers (Massachusetts Governor’s Commission, 1993). Another study involving 32 states found that over 90% of LGBT youth reported that they “sometimes” or “frequently” hear homophobic comments in school and over 80% reported that faculty and staff never intervened (Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network, 2002) (Woodel 2003).
Why are so many educators uncomfortable with the topic of LGBTQ in general? If we are uncomfortable with dealing with a topic we must ask ourselves why. It doesn't matter what we think about the question of whether or not someone "chooses" to be gay or is "born" gay. Personally, I think that there are many factors constructing one's sexuality. For some educators, the reason for avoidance of LGBTQ may be due to the question of morality. We all have our own individual beliefs in regard to morality, but we must think about this within the broader scope of social justice.
...it is unacceptable to discriminate against others. This challenge does not require that we, as teachers, make a judgment regarding whether non-heteronormative identities are right or wrong, but it demands that we not hide from lgbtq topics and that we offer respect to the diversity that exists in our classrooms... (NCTE 2006).
One of the issues dealt with in Totally Joe was the concept of morality within the construct of religion. One of Joe's "life lessons," is that "Religion is only as good as the people using it." Unlike some texts, Totally Joe doesn't completely bash religion all to hell. Here is what Joe has to say:
I know a lot of good things have been done in the name of religion, but a lot of bad things have, too... And it seems to me that hating people for what they are-- and can't help being-- is definitely a bad thing.
Joe Bunch embraces a pedagogy of possibility (my current hobby horse) for Kevin Hennessey, one of his persecutors:
...who knows, maybe at that parochial school they'll teach him to be a real Christian and stop being a bully. They believe in miracles, right? It could happen (181).
Much of my personal hell as a child was in a parochial school and at the hand of "Christians," but like Joe, I remain hopeful about the church and about people in general. I have more to say about that on my blog.
Well, I am bringing this long post to a close. Those of you who have stuck with me, I thank-you.
P.S. I have been thinking about the concept of sin. Of course there is the sin as defined by religion and religious texts, but what about the sin against self? It seems as though not being true to yourself and denying who we really are is type of sin itself. Being comfortable with our own identities is the major theme of Totally Joe.
P.S.S. (or P.P.S Whatevah) Another thing that I was going to bring up in this post was the way names are used... For example "This is so gay." "That book or this homework is gay." We shouldn't let this talk go on in our classrooms. The use of this word as a negative descriptor, perpetuates negativity and intolerance.
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