Pure Manaʻo

While I am saddened by the loss of Toni Morrison (2/18/31 - 8/5/19), the power of a writer is that their message lives on to teach more generations in the future.  When I heard that she had passed, I thought about those students I had that were assigned her books for summer reading in my AP Language class back in the 90's. I assigned Bluest Eye  one summer and Beloved  another summer. I always held my breath until school started because I thought that if I were ever challenged by a parent or an administrator for my controversial choice, I would go down swinging and be willing to be fired for my choices. I also wonder what my students really thought about my choices.  I saw one of my alumni a few years back and she said that what she remembered from my AP class was that I had them read the most interesting, non traditional literature. Nice! I even gave my youngest son Beloved   to read when his 8th grade English teacher said she wanted them to read books by Newberry med