Week 1, introduction, 2/5, and 4

[step...@brpsk12.org]

I am Marguerite Stephens.  I teach Asian history(7th grade) and go between AP Human Geography and World History (9th grade).  I have been at this school, Black River Public School, for 18 years.  We are a public charter school just south of Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  I am the History Chair and also publicity chairperson.  I have taken students on trips to Australia/New Zealand, Japan and China.

I love to travel, garden, crochet and do crafts.  I also love to write, although I am hesitant to put down on paper my ideas for fear someone will come after me!  I love cats, although we only have 1.  My husband is semi retired; we have been married almost 26 years.  

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Relating to question 2/5:  Can a book be non-fiction if written by a child 30 years after the fact?   I don't think that there is any non-fiction that has not been influenced by the compiler's emotions or views.  In order to get a truly non-fiction book it would have to be very dry and straight forward with no commentary, and to encompass ALL the possible facts to be found.  Also, in non-fiction the author would be deciding what to put into it, which could slant the meanings or pose a differing view of the work.  I believe that his memory of his feelings are very real and should not be a way to discount the events he displays.  I can often think back to elementary school and vividly recall events, and my emotions and facts are the same now as were then. Of course the pictures are subjective, as are the scenes from that period that have meaning for the author. 

Question 4:  I felt that the children were watching a game, something that they were not a part of, only observers.  I don't think they thought of it being real, of real people in the planes.  It reminds me now of students who play video games to kill, and don't understand the reality of death.

   

[morgan...@gmail.com]

Marguerite

I think you make an interesting point about kids sort of being removed from the full reality of situations.  I think back to when I was a kid and I didn't always have a reason for things and rarely did I see that action as a piece in a bigger puzzle.  

[epi...@apps.homewood.k12.al.us]

Response to Morgan and Adenike by Liz Pipkin:  Given what you said my follow up question would be will you see this book as a reliable piece of historically accurate fiction or as something else? 

The Problem of "Truth": Historical Fiction or Fictional History? This is a question that needs more explicit instruction for young people, in order to help students recognize the differences between the purposes of the historian and the novelist.  Barefoot Gen’s story is based upon Nakazawa’s first-hand experiences of life in war-torn Hiroshima, so he owns the provenance of his view.  Nakazawa’s  has knowledge of his characters' experiences, as he relates through his story telling though time has elapsed from his childhood till the time he engaged in his writing. The "truth" of historical fiction may be in its relevance to the beliefs that reader brings to the text.  Nakazawa had a purpose of bringing his story forward to help educate readers of the dimensions of the war and the Atomic Bomb. Barefoot Gen is considered one of the most important anti-war manga ever written