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How I (barely) Passed 11th Grade English

2019-08-13 · story · John · 3:34 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion, civic or action cta

A week after Toni Morrison's death, John tells how he nearly failed 11th grade English and, to pass, read her novel The Bluest Eye, which wrecked him, showed him that skipping class was squandered privilege, and made him an enthusiastic reader; her books survive her.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Tour note; nearly failing 11th grade English; what metaphor is for; mailing it in

  • ★★ John notes the brothers will be on tour this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minnesota, with ticket links in the description. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John nearly failed 11th grade English: he and his teacher disagreed about class attendance, and he wasn't a great reader, struggling with critical and abstract thinking. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John now believes metaphor and figurative language are about using language to foster deep understanding: they can put you inside a character's anxiety, not just tell you about it. — 00:00:29

  • ★★★ Metaphor exists not to torture high school English students but to make the dull bright, the old new and the distant close. — 00:00:29

    “to make the dull bright and the old new and the distant close”

  • ★★ High school John thought all that was BS and dissecting a novel torture; he missed a lot of class and never turned anything in on time, so his teacher wrote he could no longer mail it in. — 00:00:58

  • ★★★ John tells the story partly to show how many chances he had: without extraordinary teachers who believed in him and schools that supported them, he might never have graduated high school or college. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Summer papers on Twelfth Night and The Bluest Eye; being wrecked by the novel; skipping class as privilege; Beloved and Song of Solomon

  • ★★★ With an incomplete in 11th grade English, John had to read two books over the summer and write papers on them: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ The class had read Morrison's Song of Solomon that year; John liked the parts he read, so his teacher assigned him The Bluest Eye. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ The Bluest Eye is about Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl told by the social order that she's ugly, who grows up horribly mistreated by people who claim to love her. — 00:01:27 · the social order
  • ★★ John calls The Bluest Eye structurally innovative, using point of view with astonishing brilliance, yet accessible. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Reading The Bluest Eye wrecked John: he cried finishing it, and while he had known the world was unjust, now he felt it. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John wanted to write about how Pecola had been traumatized not only by individual people but by a racist and misogynistic social order. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Writing the paper, John came to understand that 'mailing it in' was itself a privilege: skipping class wasn't cool or clever but wasted opportunities many people are never given. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Later that summer John read Morrison's Beloved unassigned and reread all of Song of Solomon; he didn't understand all their nuances but loved them, and they made him an enthusiastic reader. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Becoming an enthusiastic reader; Toni Morrison's death and her surviving books; sign-off

  • ★★★ Toni Morrison died last week (week of 5 August 2019), and John finds it hard to imagine the world without her clarion voice. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Morrison's books survive her, John says, helping readers young and old see the world more clearly. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Citing Morrison's Nobel Prize lecture on the scariness of things with no names, John says she gave language to so much and to so many. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description invites viewers to come see the brothers on tour in Madison and Minneapolis. — video description
  • ★★ The description urges viewers who haven't read The Bluest Eye to read it, and her other books too. — video description
  • ★ The description notes Life's Library subscriptions are available for those who want to read books with a community. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: metaphor · social privilege · The Bluest Eye · Toni Morrison

Also: People: John's 11th grade English teacher

Works: Beloved · Song of Solomon · Toni Morrison's Nobel lecture · Twelfth Night

Concepts: institutional racism · misogyny

Places: Madison · Minneapolis

Characters: Pecola Breedlove

Only in the description or credits: Life's Library · William Shakespeare

Also centred on metaphor: It's Question Tuesday! Cheesy Jokes, Paper Towns Movie, and Dinosaur Butt Brains

Also centred on social privilege: Neck Beards and Fitness Challenges · Time for AWESOME · Started from the Bottom: Benjamin Franklin and Drake Compared · Deserving · Should I Feel Guilty? · ...Not My Proudest Moment

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2019-08-16 · ...Not My Proudest Moment (Hank) — continues — “Your video about the time when you almost failed a class and then your teacher made you not do that” (00:00:00)