Who is Aunt Ida, anyway? (Part II)

OK, the new round of blogs are here! Sorry for the delay; school is hectic for me, too. I want you all to pick one of these posts and really dig deep for some thoughtful and insightful answers. These are the kinds of questions I am really curious to investigate; these are the kinds of questions that really push your learning. So, please, think hard and respond with an answer that gets at the heart of the matter. As usual, I've tried to provide you with several angles into the conversation. If you still can't think of something 'good' to say, sleep on it. Or read through the other posts and respond to each other.

Keep an eye out on the blog; in the coming days, I will post the new schedule for reading and different activities that will take us through the remainder of the school year. We are almost there! But we also have a lot to cover. And perhaps, the most important stuff left to cover. Save the best for last, right? I think everyone will be able to really get involved and share their voices over the last month of school. I'm excited! OK, first blog option for this week:

OK, I want each of you to go back to your original posts about Aunt Ida. Remember those? The ones where we speculated on what kind of person Ida might be based on information presented to us from Ray and Christine? So take a minute, go back two weeks and look at the things you wrote. While you are there, feel free to look at what other students wrote as well.

How have things changed? Obviously we know that Christine isn’t Aunt Ida’s biological daughter. But what else did we learn about Aunt Ida? Re-read the very fist page of Aunt Ida’s section, the part where she talks about wearing resentment for forty years, the part where she regrets not saying the word ‘No’ to different people throughout her life. There’s a lot to say about Ida, for sure. I think her section is my favorite in the book and the most powerful, as well. So go ahead, weigh on with some final impressions of Aunt Ida. Or, maybe your perceptions of her children have changed. I know I don’t feel the same about Lee having read Ida’s thread of the story. This post is pretty open, so respond how you see fit. But be thoughtful; use the text to inform your opinions. What are some things that ‘struck’ you? What questions do you have left unanswered or unaddressed?

Gender roles...

In A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, we see two single mothers raising children—Christine raising Ray and Aunt Ida raising Lee and Christine. And I understand that both mothers took this on this role through their own volition, but I also can’t help but think that having women as the caretakers reinforces certain gender roles in society. I wonder, had the primary figures in this text been fathers, would things have been different? And we see this in the movie Smoke Signals, too. It is the dad who leaves the family behind, forcing the mother to raise a child on her own. So, I guess what I am trying to get at here is the idea of gender roles in our culture. The stereotype of mothers being the more nurturing parent, the more fit parent, to raise a child is something we see a lot of. Where do you all think this stereotype comes from? Do you think it is OK to always peg the mother as the caretaker? How do today’s families adhere to these gender roles? How do they differ? What has changed over the years? Consider this article, brought in by Kaitlyn Rogers in third period as an open mic. Read through some of the woman’s ‘duties.’

Pretty outrageous, huh? And comical, to say the least. But remember, that used to be the norm. Things are different now, obviously. I’m curious as to how the characters in A Yellow Raft in Blue Water fit the traditional roles and stereotypes of our society. Do you think the text perpetuates certain stereotypes? Or do you think it breaks free from those things? Weigh in, and think hard. We are going to talk about this one in class and these kinds of topics will be the basis of our next unit on gender roles and sexuality.