Magazines in the LMC

          Remember those amazing print sources full of information from yesteryear? No, not newspapers. The ones printed on glossy paper. I hear you thinking catalogs, which is close, but no. I’m talking about magazines and other periodicals like professional journals. While many of our young students may view magazines as quaint old disposable technology from a bygone era, we at the HHS Library Media Center still value and promote their use and usability.

          In the past, good libraries were measured by how many periodicals they carried and warehoused (remember the old guide to periodic literature … yeah, neither do most people). Nowadays, students often turn to Google and Wikipedia as their first (and unfortunately, their only information sources). Of course, we work hard to teach them that they should be using subscription databases such as those found through their public libraries, but I also remind them to turn to the web-sites of magazines and journals that we carry in our library.

          Every year, I try to update our magazine subscriptions according to feedback I get from our faculty, staff and students. Some publications are staples such as Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Scientific American, National Geographic, Discover, and Sports Illustrated. Other titles get shuffled around, as we try to find a balance between entertaining, informative and school appropriate publications. Here then, are four of my favorites from our newstand.

• Archaeology: New to our shelves, this publication comes from the Archaeological Association of America. I love this magazine because it is at the intersection of so many subjects that fascinate me such as art, history, ancient civilizations and science. There are many great pictures and articles about people at work discovering the truth about our common past.
• ID: This title is also new to our shelves and so far it has not disappointed. Full of beautiful photographs of mostly ordinary products given new appeal and flavor by design students, artists and commercial manufacturers.
• UTNE Reader: Their tagline is “the best of the alternative press”, and it’s a pretty accurate description. I discovered this magazine when I was in grad school and enjoy their offbeat, but interesting selections. One story in the latest issue for example, warns that, “Your Pet is a Global Warming Machine”. It seems Fido’s got a larger footprint than a Hummer. How cute would a puppy sized Hummer be?
• WIRED: Fifteen years ago, I used to find this magazine’s layout and design really annoying. But we’ve both changed a lot over that time, and now I find myself waiting for the next issue. Their website is also a great place to visit, combining good writing with graphics that are second to none. Whatever you do, don’t steal the LMC issue before I’m done reading it.

          I hope you find something interesting on the list, and invite you to stop by and have a good casual read. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great Friday.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved

Citations generators

          I know many students dread writing to begin with, and writing academic papers adds one more layer of frustration with the need for citations. Even I, who love writing, remember hating having to find the names of writers, titles of books and articles, page numbers, years of publications and other minutia that then, had to be arranged in a certain order. To this day, I still pull out a handbook to make sure that I am doing it correctly.

          One advantage that a modern student has is the on-line MLA Citation generator; a simple web tool that asks for information about the source being cited and then arranges the details into the proper MLA formatting. If you prefer APA or Chicago style, you can choose those options as well. Listen, it’s time that analog luddites accept that there are certain things that digital tools can do better and faster than people, and I tend to encourage adopting use of these tools. Sure I can divide 13,583 by 81 on paper in about 45 seconds or I can use my calculator to figure it out in 5 seconds. (By the way I think it’s most important that you can actually do the long division on paper BEFORE you turn to the calculator – I’m still a little analog). Here then, is a short list, with brief commentary, of these handy, free to use MLA Citation tools. I recommend that teachers and students try out the various sites and judge for themselves which one best fits their needs.

• Citation Center is very straightforward and easy to use, though it is limited in the kinds of sources it will format. Missing are choices for various kinds of media such as podcasts, videos, and audio. The simplest of all the websites I review here, I would only use Citation Center if all my references were traditional sources such as newspapers, magazines and books.
• NoodleBib express is a reliable, yet “clunky” program. Rather than using pop down menus on a single page or form, NoodleBib leads you through a series of detailed questions about the source you are trying to cite. To proceed you must hit a next button several times which automatically refreshes the page and leads you to the next question. While this is time consuming, it does guarantee the accuracy of your citation. Each citation is independently generated and NoodleBib Express does not allow you to save a series of sources. Instead, you must CUT and PASTE each citation to an open document in a word processor.
• Son of Citation Machine, like the previous website, is also clunky and imperfect, but it gets the job done. Here, too, you must CUT and PASTE each citation to an open document in a word processor. Easy to use and understand, with options for different types of information sources.
• Easy Bib is a citation generator site that I have recommended in the past to students and teachers. It has been around for a while, so I trust that they have slowly improved their usability and accuracy. While EasyBib does allow you to generate multiple citations, you must download a file to your computer, and it’s only available as a Word file. While I am always wary of downloading anything unnecessary to my computer, my personal experience has been that Easy Bib is fairly safe and comes highly recommended by other reliable sites.

          I can hear the purists out there complaining that this is just one more sign of the apocalypse. I don’t agree. While citation generators are not perfect tools, they do make the job of properly formatting referenced works easier. Even though the formatting is done for you, the user must still collect and input the author’s name, the title of the work, the publishers information, the date of publication and so on. Students still learn the value of citing their references, without the unnecessary stress of knowing where the page number and publisher’s name is supposed to go. To avoid all of this hassle, I recommend academic users such as teachers and students to turn to subscription databases for their information. Most subscription sites such as e-library, EBSCO host and InfoTrac provide the citation information with each article, ready to be cut and pasted into any bibliography or works cited page.

Hope you find something useful and thank you for reading.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved

Televison’s little rewards

          One of my guilty pleasures is watching a lot of television. I freely admit that I was raised on television and that I always have it on in my house. If my TV isn’t on and I’m home, then we’ve probably lost power. But I use my TV as background noise (visual and auditory) while I carry on — writing, reading, painting, doing laundry. I turn the volume up and down as needed, while I concentrate (on videos I’m watching online or while reading a particularly interesting and difficult book or magazine). Obviously, I have issues.

          The payoff, for me anyway, is that I find wonderful stories and resources that I can pass along to the readers of this blog. Most times, I find inspiration for a blog post from the History, Discovery or National Geographic type channels. Sometimes, however, I find a great story from a more unusual source.

          One such discovery comes from one of my favorite programs The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart. (I know it’s not real news) The story is about a young man named William Kamkwamba , from Malawi who was forced to leave school because his family couldn’t afford his schooling. Back around 2000, when he was just 14, young William started visiting the small library in his village, where he learned about energy and decided that he would build his family a windmill.

          It sounds like something out of a horrible fairy tale that begins with poverty and ends with a small, but significant triumph. In fact, it has been turned into a book titled, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind: creating currents of electricity and hope. I’ll try to get a copy of the book for our library, but in the meantime, check out the links to find out more about this incredible young man’s resourcefulness and how he used knowledge and information to literally empower himself, and his family.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you for Friday.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved

Some Thoughts as September Ends

               Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough or maybe the kids have all gotten too good at hiding and getting away with things. Maybe I’m imagining it all, because I want to believe so badly that what we do in the library media center (LMC) matters, and that it is a reflection of what is going on in the rest of the school. Maybe what I’m sensing, though, is real and I have seen a change in the overall behavior and study habits of the students.

                I know what you’re thinking … c’mon, September just finished. But that is the point, it’s early in the year and I like what I see. I believe that habits and attitudes are a matter of practice. Communities take time to build and people need time to recognize what is acceptable, expected, rewarded and punished. School cultures are created slowly over time with everyone being a part of the big picture. What I have seen so far, this year, in the LMC has been exemplary of what I have always wanted to see happening.

 

               I have seen students studying, typing out reports, checking out books, reading and, for the most part, working. I have completed most of my freshman orientations without having to stop once to ask a student to raise their head and pay attention. These may seem like minor things, but they are not. They reflect a general attitude about why we’re here and what we’ve all shown up to do.

               I often tell students that the library is like a holy place for me. It is a collection of the knowledge that humans have gathered throughout the generations and passed on to us. We stand on their shoulders and everyone that walks into that library owes someone (a lot of someone’s actually) a huge debt. The knowledge in our library is just a tiny representation of the hours of human labor spent not just imagining impossible things like agriculture or flight. Our library, and every other library in the world, is a collection of documents that attest to the universal quest for information and ultimately a very personal understanding of all that data. If knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon said four centuries ago, then every new generation is equipped to be more powerful than the last.

               My job, in part at least, is to help students understand what a grand inheritance they’ve stumbled upon. That they, too, no matter where they come from, no matter how they label themselves, no matter what they speak or eat at home, have a share of the marvelous spoils that humanity has gathered. Undoubtedly, some will walk away from this, unable to appreciate or comprehend what a tremendous gift it is. But for those who long to share it, and ultimately contribute to this precious cargo that we will pass along, I stand prepared and eager to make sure they are granted a place in our school, where the most uniquely human qualities of thinking and learning can happen.

                Thank you for reading and I can’t wait to see you all tomorrow.

 Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved

What I Tell Students at Freshman Orientation

          Every year, since I arrived at Haverhill High School in 2003, I’ve been inviting the Freshman English classes down to the library for what I call a general orientation. It’s my way of welcoming the new class of fresh faces to our school and giving them a preview of what they can expect when they come into the HHS Library Media Center (LMC).

          The talk can last anywhere from twenty minutes to the whole period, depending on the teachers’ request. Sometimes the students are there to also check out books, so I abbreviate my introduction. Other times, I have the whole period to interact with the students. Either way, I find the opportunity to meet and greet that incoming class exciting and, sometimes, scary.

          Most of what I have to say is just run of the mill stuff. I introduce myself and Ms. Sicard, our fantastically awesome and phenomenally reliable LMC assistant. I give the students a general tour of how the library is set up; show them where the fiction, biography and non-fiction sections can be found. Let them know how to sign up for studies and what hours the library is open for students (7 am to 2:45 pm). I also make them aware that we have one of the largest collections of books for a high school library (over 35,000 titles) and that we subscribe to over 40 magazine titles.

          I point out that four directed study classes and the Jobs for Bay State program are also physically connected to the LMC, and that VHS students have an area dedicated to their online classes. I tell them how and when they can use any of the nearly seventy computers we have in the library, and that there is absolutely no food or drink, including H20, allowed in the LMC. I also remind them that any and all rules that apply to the rest of the school about phones, headphones, hats, hoods, low rider pants, inappropriate shirts, and such, apply as well in the library.

          Then comes the part of my speech that can’t be found anywhere in the handbook. It is the portion of my orientation that deals more with my educational philosophy and my personal approach to dealing with the everyday details that we will encounter throughout the year(s). It is my opportunity to make a real first impression about who I am, and what I am about. It gives me a chance to distill what I have learned about teaching and being a teacher in seventeen years of trying my hand at this noble profession. Every time that I do it, it is slightly different, but what I am trying to express boils down to a few simple, easy to comprehend ideas, that go something like this:

•  I am a teacher first and foremost, and I am here to help every student that wants to learn.

• Haverhill High is every students’ school, but it is my workplace, and I will not permit anyone to interfere with my job.

• I view the LMC as the heart and soul of the academic life of our school, and no one is allowed to disrupt the important work that has to be done.

• Nothing that I do in my office, is as important as anything I do to help a student or teacher.

• Everyone is responsible for their own behaviors, and there are consequences for disrupting others pursuing their education, and finally,

• We are a community, and everything we do as individuals affects who we are as a whole.

          After that, I tell them how excited I am to have them join our family, and that I hope that in four years time, we will all be better off for having known each other. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.  

Science Blogs

           Oh how quickly eleven days can pass by when you’re busy cataloging new books, checking in supplies, updating the student database, making sure the copy room isn’t melting down and scheduling classes to come down for their library orientations. I’ve still been trolling around the Internet, looking for great finds to share, but my discoveries are a little uneven. Thus, I’ve decided to revisit and reintroduce one of my favorite places on the vast web of information.

            While some people still don’t fully appreciate or recognize the importance of blogging, it is an emerging sector of the Internet that has transformed the way we communicate with and inform one another. Most well known bloggers are professional writers from the news and entertainment industries who have simply transferred their skills over to the electronic medium. For me, this is the least exciting sector of this new wave of thinkers available to the general public because it is mostly the same commercial stuff that is already disseminated through television, radio and advertising. (Memes are real).

            One of my favorite “watering holes” on the Internet is ScienceBlogs, precisely because it is about a subject that I feel the public is generally under-informed, and unfortunately uninterested, about. Unlike E-blogger or wordpress (host of this blog) where anyone can sign up for an account and start posting, ScienceBlogs seems to have standards, for it is home to only seventy one (71) blogs. Written by science professors, teachers and graduate students, the blogs found at this clearinghouse are divided into eleven sections including life science, the environment, education, physical science, politics and a half dozen other categories. I would be lying if I said that I have checked them all out, but I am certain that everyone with even a burgeoning interest in the wonders of science will find something worth reading here.

            I invite you to peruse their offerings and please let me know if you find anything worth sharing, since I have stopped looking because I am happy with the sites I already frequent regularly. After all, even though the Internet is ubiquitous and open 24/7, there are only so many hours in the day for us mortals. Here then are my recommended reads:

•  Pharyngula: Written by PZ Myers, associate professor and biologist at the University of Minnesota, this site focuses mostly on the battle between science and religion in our schools and culture. Myers does not mince words when it comes to expressing his distaste and distress over the politics of belief that impede the progress of true science education in this country. I only wish there were more people, especially educators, willing to take his position.
• The Frontal Cortex: So maybe there isn’t a brain region (that I could find) called the frontal cortex; though there is a pre-frontal cortex that is associated with memory tasks and risk taking activities. Still, this blog, written by Jonah Lehrer (a Wired contributing editor and author of Proust was a Neuorscientist), is interesting in its scope and topics. If you like to wonder about how brains work, Lehrer is up to the challenge of making you think about common things, in uncommon ways.
•  Not Exactly Rocket Science: Despite the self-deprecatory title, this blog’s mission seems to be to get the masses to appreciate “rocket science” or at least, general science. Written by award winning writer, Ed Yong, the posts are “his attempt to make the latest scientific discoveries interesting to everyone by beating jargon, confusion and elitism with the stick of good writing.” Cool graphics don’t hurt.

           Maybe three recommendations doesn’t seem like enough to you, but remember that each of these blogs has got at least one year’s worth of reading and entries in its archives. That should give anyone enough to read and consider for a while. Still, I would love to hear that you have found something that piques your interest enough to make it part of your daily reading. Please post your feedback in the comments section below, so that other visitors of this blog know what you’re thinking.

            Thank you for stopping by, and I will see you all tomorrow.

 Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back 2009-2010

One of the nice things about a blog like this is that I get to recycle certain posts from time to time (with modifications, of course). One such post is last year’s welcome back entry at the beginning of the year where I outline important dates and LMC policies. This is especially good if you are new to our school or if you have forgotten how we operate. Please read carefully and let me know if there is anything confusing:

Welcome back for the 2009-2010 school year! As always, we at the HHS LMC are here to try to make your days as teachers, administrators and students better and more rewarding. Already we are getting many questions and requests, so I thought I’d use this opportunity to address some of these.

Important Library dates

•  9/08, Tues: Teachers can begin scheduling for class visits to check out books
• 9/08, Tues: English teachers can bring down classes to pick up portfolios
• 9/09, Wed: Freshman English teachers can begin scheduling for library orientation
• 9/16, Wed: Study students can sign up for library study

For all your AV and media concerns, call at once (xt. 1143) if you need

• a bulb for your overhead projector, and you should have it in minutes
• help connecting your tv, vcr or dvd player, and it should be ok in moments
• a vcr, cassette player, CD player, or radio, for we have plenty of those
• a dvd player or video projector and screen, but I’d prefer to know two days before … and I can’t promise to get you one right away

Review of basic library rules

1. Students may sign up for the library (if they have a scheduled study), only before homeroom starts or after school, after 2:05.
2. Students may not get a pass from their study or directed study teachers to the library. Subject teachers may send students with a pass (up to 3) to complete class work or take a test. (Please call to advise us if you are sending students out of a class)
3. Hats, hoods, cell phones, are not allowed. And every other rule in the student handbook also especially applies in the library.
4. The library is a large common space, available and welcoming to all who wish to convene (after making arrangements or getting a pass), thus anyone who disrupts or interferes with the WORK being done, will be asked to leave – and may be banned for some time, depending on the wishes of the Oracle.
5. Remember to leave the library the way you found it. If you moved a chair, put it back. If your students moved chairs, have your students put them back. Better still … don’t move the chairs.
6. Food and drink are not allowed in the library. Food includes anything you put in your mouth that you intend to swallow or chew on. Drink includes water. I can’t make this any clearer.
7. Students are to remain seated until the bell rings to mark the end of each class period. This is doubly true for the dismissal bell at 2:05. Visiting teachers are asked to please help keep their students seated.
8. We are here to help anyone and everyone who asks for help, especially when they ask with a smile. (Although a smile is not a prerequisite because that would mean we would only serve about 10% of our population). 

I think that’s it for now. I hope it’s clear and easy to comprehend.

I love our LMC and believe that we can provide the best quality education for anyone who really aspires to learn, but I NEED YOUR HELP. The library is not a holding pen, hangout, extension of connected classrooms or anything else. In my mind it is the central temple of information and a repository of learning. Let’s WORK, to keep it that way.

Thank you for stopping by and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.

Last Summer ‘09 Post

Boy did I let this last post s_l_i_d_e. I just couldn’t get around to writing it because I kept doing other things, trying to squeeze what I could out of this summer. And now it’s gone and I feel like I have to get this posted before midnight tonight for it to count. Or at least before I show up to school tomorrow. So, I hope that you all had a great summer and that you are looking forward to having a powerful and productive year. Before we get into the serious work, I wanted to share with you some of the web gems that I found over the summer:

Bing: By now I’m sure you’ve heard that some little company is trying to lure you away from the mighty mega giant Google. Bing is claiming to be, not a search engine, but the Internet’s first “decision engine”. Oh, and it includes a cool and different background every day that has little pop up boxes with factoids and links. And stuff. You’ll have to evaluate it for yourself. Right now, I’m not sure I’d start using Bing as a verb to sound trendy or with it as in, “have you Binged it”?

World Wide Telescope: The same spunky startup that launched Bing recently also happens to have a really cool application that lets you peer through the universe and get awesome pictures of all the amazing things our puny little eyes can’t see. Whenever you get tired of this cozy place we call home, take some time to explore the Cosmos in a way that would have made Copernicus’ explanations a lot easier to imagine.

Closer to the Truth: When you’re done exploring outer space, take some time to contemplate the inner space. This site features show length videos of the program by the same name hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn (perhaps the prototype for Dos Equis’ “most interesting man in the world”). The series intends to explore “Cosmos. Consciousness. God” by interviewing scholars and leading thinkers to share their thoughts on the deepest questions.

Academic Earth: Still have more questions? Maybe you want to listen to a professor from Stanford talk about the “Modern Freedom Struggle” or let a professor from Berkley introduce you to the human brain and muscular system. Maybe you’re feeling gloomy with summer ending and all, and you want to check out Yale’s intro to the philosophy of death. Of course I went for MIT’s “Introduction to copyright law” … scintillating.

Sporcle: Okay, not everything has got to be so serious. Sporcle’s tagline is “mentally stimulating diversions” and they had me at hello. I figured I was gonna ace such easy topics as “U.S. States”, “Corporate Logos” and “U.S. Presidents”, are you kidding me? I did fine, but I kept forgetting either Warren G. Harding or Martin van Buren. Anyway once I mastered those, I figured I’d move on to the Periodic Table. Yeah, I’m still on that one and I’m up to like twenty elements. Maybe you’d like to try your hand at Uma Thurman Movies or Pokemon Characters. And finally …

Virus Total: Don’t know if you trust that e-mail from a suspicious “friend”? Downloaded an application from a site you’re not really familiar with, and now you’re not sure if you want to run it? Sure you might have McAfee, but not F-Secure. Or maybe you have both plus ViRobot, but not Norton or Virus Buster. Why not be absolutely sure and check out that shady file at Virus Total. They’ll run your file through 39 databases shared by the anti-malware heroes of the connected world. And it’s absolutely FREE.

Hope you find something worth checking out and I will see you all in a few hours. (Didn’t post it before midnight.) Thanks for reading.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.

Site recommendations from Teachers

I cannot believe how quickly two weeks passes in the summer, and it’s starting to get really hot just when it is almost over. Go figure. So I was planning on writing about technology for this post since I had written about books the last three times. While working on gathering resources to pass along, I had the good fortune of getting an e-mail from one of our fabulous science teachers, Ms. Willwerth. She found an interesting site called VoiceThread. According to Ms. Willwerth, “you can take a tour and check it out … In case you haven’t seen it before, this is how it works:

1. Someone, in our case a teacher, would post a picture or video of something online, and give a little brief about it. It could be a description of what it is, or it could be a discussion starter.

2. The students could then go online and see this picture or video and make their own comments about it. What’s nice is that it’s not real time, so students who need a little more time to think about and process their response can do that and make a thoughtful contribution.

3. The teacher can go back on and listen to all the comments of the students. I’m thinking that perhaps I could play the responses back during class and then we could have a true discussion on it, but at least at that point everyone has had the chance to contribute.”

Take the time to check it out and see if it is something we should invest in. Ms. Willwerth is not the only one who shares her resources with me. At the end of the school year, one of our wonderful math teachers, Ms. Giampa, was nice enough to share a number of sites that she has used in her classes. These first three links she says she found “by googling ‘MCAS Test taking strategies”:

• 5 general tips for MCAS success
• Boston Public Library MCAS Practice Software
• Quincy Public Schools MCAS Test taking tips

Ms. Giampa also uses these sites, as she explains in her notes:

• MathBits.com - for Algebra 1 classes. Note, there are numerous sites such as this one that can be used in math classes. In addition to using them in the classroom, if I show the students the website and how it works, they are more likely to try it at home or in the library than if I just tell them about it.   

• College Board SAT Question of the Day - for Senior Math / SAT prep. Again, I also like to show them around the College Board site and how they can use it. This goes for AP students as well.  

• The Practice of Statistics – While this is specific to Statistics and our text book, it has some cool interactive applets and on line quizzes. 

• FAQs about Trigonometry - for Trigonometry (although I usually have the students work this one themselves in the computer lab)

Thank you so very much to both Ms. Willwerth and Ms. Giampa for passing along these great online resources. Their contributions also mean that I will share with you what I found, the next time. Thank you for stopping by and I hope the summer has been splendiferous.

P.S. Any remarks about the “new” blog layout? Positive, negative, neutral? I kind of like the simplicity of the new look, though I haven’t yet seen what our filters at school will make it look like. Let me know what you think.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.

Books I Wish More People Would Read

Continuing with the book lists theme of my most recent posts I would like to offer you my collection of 5 books I wish more people would read. I am not arguing that these are the best works of their kind in any category – I don’t pretend to know that much. What I am offering is just a handful of books that I really enjoyed and that I think deserve more attention. (READER ALERT: the direction that this post took was influenced by watching and listening to a lot of non-book media).

• A Rap on Race with Margaret Mead and James Baldwin : With all the press and hoopla that has been generated recently with the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, this book should be required reading for everyone in high school; and not because it provides answers, it doesn’t. In fact, the transcribed conversation between the eminent ethnographer and the prolific writer is muddled, confusing and contradictory at times. It is filled with what some may consider tangents and anecdotes that don’t provide genuine insight, but instead help to draw in other variables or non sequiturs. These two erudite people, however, had seen a bit of life, and had thought long and hard about issues such as identity and race, and were still stumped by how gnarly anything got once “race” was thrown into the equation. There is a parallel here, as I see it, with the current Cambridge incident. Consider for a moment that Professor Gates is an eminent scholar on racial issues and identity, and that (according to some accounts I’ve read) the arresting officer, Sgt. Crowley was hand-selected to train other officers on issues of racial sensitivity and profiling. If these two men couldn’t deal with each other without seeing race, what hope is there for the rest of us?
•  Common Ground by John Edgar Wideman: Sorry, I’m not done with thinking about the issue and idea of RACE in America, yet. After you’re finished “listening” in on two of the coolest people of the last century wrangle with the problems of seeing the world in terms of black and white, check out this essay by Professor Wideman. This is the first of five essays in a book titled Fatheralong : A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society. We do share common ground, explains Wideman. Turn back the hands of time far enough, and we’re all huddled around the same fire. Turn the hands forward, and we go our separate ways. But look closely enough, and you’ll recognize we never really went very far. Race according to Wideman has become like a net that catches nothing and destroys everything in its path. It is a word for Humpty Dumpty … made to mean whatever it is supposed to mean. Anytime we see the race card dealt, warns Wideman, beware, because the fix is in. 
•  The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin: It appears that this blog post is turning into some list of my Books Everyone Should Read; Special Race Edition. I didn’t start out intending for it to be that way, it’s just that there is STILL talk on the radio and on television about the Professor Gates arrest – (I’ve been working on this post for 3 or 4 days now). Anyway, this book is really a collection of two essays. I especially recommend people read the first essay, “My Dungeon Shook”. It is a powerful and moving letter Baldwin writes to his nephew on the 100^th anniversary of Emancipation contemplating America and its “problem”.
• Mission to Kala by Mongo Beti: It’s been years since I reread this book, but it took just two sittings to whip through it. If you’ve ever read and enjoyed Chinua Achebe’s writing, you’ll enjoy this novel. Both funny and serious, without being overly preachy or nostalgic, Beti’s tale of a failed scholar who must return to live what he thinks is a simpler village life will transport you to a different time and place.
• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn: I’ve recommended this book to both teachers and students, but I don’t think anyone has ever taken me up on the suggestion. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the main character is a telepathic silverback gorilla who thinks he understands the uppity humans and their destructive modern culture. This book uses the Socratic method and turns to ancient sources to ask, “what are the consequences of humans misunderstanding their place in the world”? Not a bad question from such a hirsute fellow Hominidae.

Note from seaworld.org.: “Historically humans and their extinct ancestors were classified in the Family Hominidae while all great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) were classified in the Family Pongidae. However, biomolecular and genetic research along with recent fossil evidence have identified new similarities between species, leading to the reclassification of chimpanzees and gorillas into the Family Hominidae.”

 Oh, there are plenty more titles I think people should read, but I’ll save that stuff for the future. I think 5 recommendations at a time is plenty, don’t you? Sorry for getting stuck on race there for a little bit, I couldn’t help reflecting back some of the information I’m currently taking in. I stand by my recommendations, however, as solid pieces of writing that I do wish more people would read.

Let me know what titles you think everyone should have on their MUST READ list. In the meantime, thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having a great summer.

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.