Journal Article

The Journey Is All

LINDBLOM, KEN, CHRISTENBURY, LEILA

2020

Overview

Few classroom teachers see themselves as heroes, much less heroes on an epic journey. We contend, however, that there are strong similarities, and exploring the analogy and embracing the metaphor help us understand the work of leaching and the transformation that work can exert on our lives. The double archetype of the hero (or traveler) and the journey is omnipresent in the literature we teach: from Beowulf to Ulysses to Jane Kyre to Bilbo Baggins, from Frost's road not taken in a yellow wood to Dante's path in a dark forest, we read of how the hero traveler leaves the security of home, confronts tests and trials, and completes the journey, returning with new knowledge and a changed life. Most hero travelers have compelling reasons to start the journey. For few, however, is the implication of the journey immediately clear. In fact, most start with only a hazy idea of what they may be facing and how the journey will change them.

• Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English
• Subject: Academic Achievement / African American literature / American literature / Anon (600-1100) (Beowulf and Judith) / British & Irish literature / Chaucer, Geoffrey (1340?-1400) / Classrooms / Dickens, Charles (1812-1870) / Educational Strategies / English Instruction / English literature / Grade 8 / Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864) / Heroism & heroes / High Schools / Hunger / Hurston, Zora Neale (1891-1960) / Language Arts / Literacy / Metaphor / Morrison, Toni (1931-2019) / Preservice Teachers / Secondary schools / Student Teachers / Students / Teachers / Teaching / TEACHING JOURNEYS / Teaching Methods / Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910) / Walls, Jeannette