The Sneetches

The most important thing I can do for my students is broaden their minds and their hearts. This has been apparent to me from the very beginning of my career. I remember it was my second year teaching when I had a Spanish One class third block which is when our lunch happens. Students would be with me an hour, go to lunch and come back for the last half an hour of class.

That day, our school newspaper had released an issue. They had printed an article written anonymously by someone about our school and how very divided it is with the haves and the have nots. My students walked into class that day and immediately said "did you read it?" because they were up in arms about the entire thing. I had a beautiful lesson planned that day to work on vocab and review for an upcoming test. But we did no Spanish that day. That day I allowed the students space to talk about the article and I was told to read it during my lunch so I knew more. The entire class was a conversation with twelve very upset students for different reasons. A couple were from the privileged end of the student spectrum and a couple were from the low end.



That afternoon, for an hour and a half of which I taught no content, was the most productive afternoon I had that year because students who had previously not spoken to each other in a class of twelve bonded and truly began to understand each other.

That afternoon re-awoke the passion I had for social justice and issues surrounding how humans treat each other. I had been extremely passionate about this in college but in the craziness of first year teaching, I lost it. I think what drives this need to address this concern is the ways in which I was treated by my peers for living in the country town of Mariaville and not being able to afford the "in" thing or for being overweight. I know what it's like being a have not because I grew up as one.

Since that afternoon, I have always found time to talk to my students about being nice and treating each other well but in a round about way. It was through my work with the Capital District Writing Project that I found the courage to bring it formally into my classroom. I begun this work formally three falls ago now, five years after that conversation with those students.

I have taught two different levels the past two years: Spanish 2A, which is an honor's class of ninth graders, and Spanish 4, a mixed tenth and eleventh grade level. While Spanish instruction is important and there are vocabulary units to be covered, I have have woven throughout lessons and mini-units of cultural literacy. My over-arching question is: how do you see yourself in relation to the world around you?

The start of this work happens on the very first day of school when I choose to talk with my students not about the rules and expectations as most teachers do. I choose to talk with the students about being kind and treating each other and themselves with respect. We view a video called "One Day" which is an uplifting video about a chain of kindness that is paid forward. The following day, we watch a TED talk by the woman responsible for making the video. Then a few weeks later, we have the Special Paper Lesson which I already described in this blog post.

This week, my Spanish 4 students have begun the next leg of their journey of cultural exploration. I decided this year to introduce the idea of the single story to the students before we watch the TED talk that Chimananda Adichie gave. In her speech she talks about how we have single stories of people or groups of people. She talks about how if all we ever know of one thing is one story, then we develop a single story of what that thing is and never allow the possibility to think anything else. The term single story is another way of talking about stereotypes but it runs deeper than that and I like my students to explore this.

In order to open this conversation, we begin with a lesson based on Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches.  This story is a wonderful story about how the plain-bellied sneetches are discriminated against for not having a star like the star-bellied sneetches. They are treated poorly until one day a stranger shows up who offers them a solution: a machine to put a star on their belly. In the end, the sneetches spend all their money paying the man to give them stars or remove them. Finally, they realize that no sneetch is the best kind of sneetch.

Dr. Seuss' genius is that he takes a topic like discrimination and writes about it in a very simplistic yet entertaining way. This story is the perfect introduction to how we judge people and how we treat those we deem as "less" which is what I want my students thinking about when we watch Spanglish, a movie about an affluent white family who hires a Mexican maid. There are a lot of cultural differences that play out in the film and it also puts Mexican immigrants in a different light and will hopefully add to the students' single story of what a Mexican immigrant is.

Along with the movie, the students have questions about which they will ponder and then finally explore in writing. The questions push the students to delve further into the movie and think about the misunderstandings that happen between the characters due to the language and cultural differences. But before they view the film, I want them thinking about various things so I put together a series of 13 writing prompts through the story of The Sneetches. The lesson is as follows:

Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
Those stars weren't so big. They were really so small.
You might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all.

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”

And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,
Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all.

You only could play if your bellies had stars
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.
When the Star Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts
Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,

They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.
They kept them away. Never let them come near.
And that’s how they treated them year after year.

Writing Prompt 1: Why do you think the star-bellied sneetches view themselves as better?

Writing Prompt 2: How do you suppose they got stars on their bellies? Did they start as star-bellied and then some lost their stars? Or did they all start plain-bellied and some gained a star?

Writing Prompt 3: How do you think the plain-bellied sneetches feel after years of this treatment?

Writing Prompt 4: What don't the star-bellied sneetches know about the plain-bellied that might help the situation?

Writing Prompt 5: Who is justified in this situation? The plain-bellied or the star-bellied?

Writing Prompt 6: What don't you know about the situation that might change your opinion about who is justified in their beliefs?

Then ONE day, it seems while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars,
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars!

“My friends”, he announced in a voice clear and clean,
“My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
And I’ve heard of Your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that, I’m the Fix-It-Up Chappie.

I’ve come here to help you.
I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work with great speed.
And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!”

Then, quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean
Put together a very peculiar machine.
And he said, “You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch?
My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!”

“Just pay me your money and hop right aboard!”
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared.
And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked.
And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars!

Then they yelled at the ones who had stars at the start,
"We're exactly like you! You can't tell us apart.
We're all just the same, now, you snooty old smarties!
And now we can go to your frankfurter parties."

 Writing Prompt 7: What things do we do as people to "fit in" with the crowd in control?

"Good grief!" groaned the ones who had stars in the first.
“We’re still the best Sneetches and they are the worst.
But now, how in the world will we know”, they all frowned,
“If which kind is what, or the other way round?”

Then up came McBean with a very sly wink.
And he said, “Things are not quite as bad as you think.
So you don’t know who’s who. That is perfectly true.
But come with me, friends. Do you know what I’ll do?

I’ll make you, again, the best Sneetches on the beaches.
And all it will cost you is ten dollars eaches.”
“Belly stars are no longer in style”, said McBean.
“What you need is a trip through my Star-Off Machine.
This wondrous contraption will take OFF your stars
so you won’t look like Sneetches that have them on thars.”

And that handy machine working very precisely
Removed all the stars from their tummies quite nicely.
Then, with snoots in the air, they paraded about.
And they opened their beaks and they let out a shout,
“We know who is who! Now there Isn’t a doubt.
The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!”

Then, of course, those with stars got all frightfully mad.
To be wearing a star was frightfully bad.
Then, of course, old Sylvester McMonkey McBean
invited THEM into his Star-Off Machine.
Then, of course from THEN on, as you probably guess,
Things really got into a horrible mess.

All the rest of that day, on those wild screaming beaches,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie kept fixing up Sneetches.
Off again! On again! In again! Out again!
Through the machines they raced round and about again,
Changing their stars every minute or two. They kept paying money.
They kept running through until the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one or that one was this one. Or which one
Was what one or what one was who.

Writing Prompt 8: Think about society as a whole... what counts as "popular" or "normal"? What traits make someone "normal" or "ideal"?

Writing Prompt 9: From where does this idea of "normal" or "Ideal" come? Where do we get the image of "normal" or "ideal"? Why? How?

Writing Prompt 10: To what lengths do we go to be "normal" or "ideal"? Why? To what extremes are people willing to go?

Then, when every last cent of their money was spent,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie packed up. And he went.
And he laughed as he drove In his car up the beach,
“They never will learn. No. You can’t Teach a Sneetch!”

But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say.
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether
They had one, or not, upon thars.

Writing Prompt 11: Think about someone you've met in your life that you deemed was "weird" or "not normal". Describe that person and why you thought of that person as "weird" or not "normal". What don't you know about that person that might make you understand him or her better?

After this part of the lesson, I ask students to arrow down a couple lines and change their font color to white. I told them that now they are able to type whatever they want and no one can see what they write. I encouraged them to write their first thoughts as I revealed some words, prefacing it with the fact that some of what they write might not necessarily be nice or feel good writing but assured them it was in white and no one would see. Then I began to reveal the terms every forty seconds and allowed them the opportunity to write their first thoughts about: cheerleaders, jocks, Special Ed Students, ESL Students, Teens, Women, African Americans, Mexicans and Immigrants.

After we finished this writing, I ask how many people had written something that they might not want anyone to read. There was a hesitation to admit anything but a hand was slowly raised and then other hands were raised until most had admitted it, myself included. I did not ask them to share anything they wrote but explained that they may have written their single stories of things. We talked about from where these single stories come and answers were: family, friends, church, media, movies, music or advertisements.

Students were then given the prompt: Think about what you hear when you hear the term "Mexican immigrant"? What do you think when you hear about it in the news or see it in the world? What do you need to know to understand it better? Students had a T-chart to record their thoughts: what did they know or think about when they hear or see Mexican immigrants versus what they need to know to understand better.

I encouraged students to share out their questions. Some that came out were:
•Why do they come here?
•What's life like for them?
•Can their kids go to school?
•What's it like not knowing English?
•Is it really good or bad for our economy?
•How can they come here legally?

After that, I explained that we had this technology in our classroom and asked them to find the answer to their question. Students had some time to think and share the information that they were finding. I really believe that this part of my lesson needs a lot of work. Last year, providing the students the questions was too controlled but this year was too flexible. I know some students were not researching their questions because there wasn't accountability. I wanted to spark their curiosity and many were sharing information but several were not.

Regardless, it opened up conversation and thought to something they might not have examined in their lives before that moment. It opened the topic of immigration and was an introduction to our movie wherein a Mexican immigrant comes to the United States and begins to interact with an affluent family. And it is another step toward examining their thoughts and feelings to those who are different.