Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 21:17:39 -0600
From: schulze 
To: tednellen 
Subject: Re: a request

Ted,
        I have gone to your web page and read your comments, the lesson plan,
the letter, and all of the students' essays.  Very powerful stuff here. 
I am not sure just what your concerns are, so I will take the liberty of
giving you my gut reaction to the material.  Some will be positive and
some will be negative.  Then I will tell you what some of my concerns
would be and see if those are some of your own.
        First,The children clearly express very strong feelings about the sept.
11th happenings, and some of them are very hard to read.  It makes me
wonder if this is their true perception of the events, if this is the
way the media in Pakistan is presenting the facts to them, if their
thoughts represent their parents views, or their teacher's views.
        It is hard, of course, to read essays in which students damn the
country in which you live, and it would be tempting to just get mad and
call them misinformed or brainwashed children.  It is also eyeopening to
read these essays and get a view of our country that we might not be
fully aware of.
        I think your page and these essays clearly fulfill your stated purpose
of getting scholars work published and open to peer review.  And I think
it would be extremely interesting to see essays inresponse to these
essays by American students. (forgive me if I envision these students
and American students becoming penpals and learning to like each other. 
I just want to be an optimist.)
        Another reaction I have is the reaction of a teacher.  I have a problem
with the way the essay topics were stated.  My experience with ninth
grader (I haven't worked with 7th graders, but I would think that they
would be more so) is that if you give them a topic they try to answer
it.  So if the topic is America got what it deserves, or Osama Bin Laden
is not guilty, students will try to use that as the topic of their
essays, and probably not consider the fact that they can take the other
side in their essays.  Also, and this might be my jingoistic, American
bias, but I thought I detected a distinct bias in the teacher's comments
on the students' papers.
        Wow, my thoughts and reactions are going all over the place.  Maybe
that was part of your concern - peoples' initial reaction to the letters
themselves.
        I had not read the David Thornburg piece before, but I really enjoyed
getting to see it.  He states so clearly what I feel so strongly
democracy is all about.  And because of that, I think that it is right
that these essays be made public so that people can read them, take a
good look at themselves and their country, and see if they see any basis
for these strong feelings.
        Now - one other concern, which might be one of yours, - The casting of
blame on the Jews that runs through these letters.  What is the 4000
Jews who did not show up to work story all about?  Where did these
children get this story?  My concern here would be because some of our
dear friends are Jewish, and this is hard and harsh on them.  I realize
these are the words and thoughts of children, but our Jewish friends
know too well that these are also the words and thoughts of many of
their parents.
        One other concern of mine is the racial profiling which is going on
against anyone who is of middle easten descent, arab, and other muslim
groups.  Pakistanis are not Arabs, but they are Muslims and seem to have
sympathy with Arabs.  We are in real danger in this country of repeating
the tragic injustices against Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. 
Would these essays further inflame anti-muslim sentiments?
        Gee, Ted, I don't think I am being any help to you at all.  I have all
these gut feelings and reactions and concerns, but when you come right
down to it, I believe as you do that students should have an audience
for and peer review of their work, and that freedom of expression is one
of the most important rights we have in this country. I am completely
against censorship of ideas.
        You say this will be part of your presentation.  What is the whole
presentation?  I know you submitted it way before Sept. 11th, and just
wonder how this all fits together.

Thank you for sharing this with me, and I will be glad to converse
further with you about this.

Pat Schulze