Short Stories: Women and Education

The following suggestions for short works of fiction and
non-fiction useful for a "women and education" course were
offered on WMST-L in January 2004.  For additional WMST-L files
now available on the Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

Dear WMST-Listers,

I am offering a "women and education" course and would like to
supplement articles & texts with a little fiction ... but there is not
enough time for a novel.  My searches in the WMST-L archives have
uncovered some great fiction suggestions but mostly novel-length, or on
different themes. I have the _Dropped Threads_ books but these are not
really fiction.

I would be most grateful for your recommendations of short stories about
women's informal or formal education experiences -- eg. girlhood school
experiences, adult education experiences, job training,
consciousness-raising,  learning or training about "how to be a woman
[or wife or mother]", or other interpretations of "education."

I would be happy to compile responses for the list.
thank you,
Daphne Uras
duras   AT   trentu.ca

I have always found pulling chapters from Gilligan and Brown, or Orenstein,
or _Women's Ways of Knowing_, or Hancock just to name a few, to be inspiring
in lieu of a short story.  And of course bell hooks, Maggie Humm Ed of
Modern Feminisms.  I have a bibliography for women and/in education that I
would be glad to send under separate cover.
Diane Frechin

One possibly useful short story that comes to mind is Toni Cade
Bambara's "The Lesson" (an oft-anthologized and very teachable story).
It's more about "informal education": an African-American girl's
reaction to a neighbor's attempt to enlighten her and a group of other
poor children in the community about economic inequality, etc., by
taking them to F.A.O. Schartz in NY. If I think of other stories and
they don't  wind up getting suggested by other WMST-L posters, I'll post
again when it's not midnight. Marilyn

Marilyn Edelstein
Associate Professor of English
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara CA 95053
408-554-4123
medelstein  AT  scu.edu

You might want to try ~Never a Dull Moment: Teaching and the Art of
Performance~ by Jyl Lynn Felman (New York: Routledge, 2001.)  It is the
story of a feminist teacher and shares in "conversational form" all that she
considers as she prepares her classes as well as how her students and
colleagues respond.  It's a wonderful and practical read.  However, it is
not fiction
Gill Miller
millerg  AT  denison.edu

Greetings Daphne!

Have you considered looking at books intended primarily for the
adolescent market?

One book that comes to mind is called My Louisiana Sky, by Kimberley
Willis Holt. My daughter read it when she was in 6th grade. It'a a short
novel, and is about a girl growing up in Louisiana, in the home of her
grandmother, who is the guardian to the girl's parents, both of whom are
"retarded".

The story is about the girl's struggle with her own growth, and her own
awareness of the challenges and limitations that face her parents.

I think that you, and your class, would enjoy reading it, and discussing
it. (I read it in practically one sitting!)

Joan
!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!
Joan I. Biddle Ph.D.
Sociologist
LTC, USAR (ret)
jbiddle2  AT  cox.net
joan.biddle  AT  us.army.mil
Co-President, Sociological Practice Association
http://www.socpractice.org
^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!

I taught Women and Education courses many times in the 1970s, '80s and
'90s. I think autobiogrpahies are important; I used to assign a
different autobiography or memoir to each student and then we would
have a round table discussion of the books (e.g., The Road from
Coorain, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Black Ice, Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl). The short story I liked best was Alice Munro's
Boys and Girls; I don't know if it has been anthologized recently. You
could also use a chapter from Woman on the Edge of Time (I assigned
that novel in almost every upper division class I taught in the '80s
and '90s--it is always salient!) The film "Educating Rita" was an
excellent teaching film, and I often used "The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie," and two Australian films, "My Brilliant Career" and "The
Getting of Wisdom." An important documentary film that works very well
in women/education classes is "The Women of Summer"; I recommend it
highly.

Carol Perkins, Professor Emeritus
Minnesota State University, Mankato

Daphne,

several of the short stories in The Woman That I Am: The Literature
and Culture by Contemporary Women of Color by D. Soyini Madison will
work well.  I don't have the book with me right now, (it's in the
office and i'm at home) but off hand I think that "A Girl's Story,"
"Preciousness," "Two Deserts," among others, may be helpful.

all best,
tamara

Tamara Agha-Jaffar, Professor of English
Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave.
Kansas City, KS 66112
913-288-7100
taghajaf  AT  toto.net
or
wskckcc  AT  aol.com

I had a few more short fiction suggestions for the women and education
course.

(1) Zitkala-Sa's "School Days of an Indian Girl," about a Sioux girl's forced
assimilation in a mission school, originally published in "The Atlantic
Monthly" 85 (1900)

(2) The chapter (I don't have the exact one) in Maxine Hong Kingston's "The
Woman Warrior" about a young Chinese-American girl's experience in a California
school.

(3) Chapter 3 in Audre Lorde's "Zami," a biomythography, about Lorde's
experiences as a near-blind student in both a NewYork public and a Catholic school.

(4) Sarah Orne Jewett's "The White Heron." Although this is not about an
institution of education, it is about a pre-pubescent girl's initiation (or
postponement thereof) into the world of experience, symbolized by her refusal to
tell a handsome hunter/ornithologist about the whereabouts of the rare heron.

Dr. Mary Carruth
Core Faculty Member and Assistant Director
Women's Studies Program
University of Georgia
mcarru7  AT  aol.com

Below I've included a compilation of the generous and thoughtful
suggestions I received in response to my earlier request to WMST
Listers, plus a few of my own suggestions. The request was for short
stories regarding women and some aspect of education. I have been
enjoying hunting down these pieces and reading them. To date I have used
"Girl" and "Memoirs of a Really Good Brown Girl" with positive results
in this course.  The students are also reading all of Orenstein's
Schoolgirls, as well as several journal articles on education.

Many thanks to those who took the time to respond; I really appreciate
it and think this community of WS instructors is wonderful. I believe
I've included all the responses below (my apologies if I have not).

****Women & Education: short stories & other works*****

tillie olsen's works in "i stand here ironing" -- in one of which she
confronts the challenges of a *daughter* becoming educated and alienated
from her working class family.

You might consider Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing." It's a
classic, very teachable, and about education in multiple ways. The
mother, who is narrating the story, is talking with her daughter's high
school advisor (or maybe a teacher) who has called with concerns about
the daughter. Very moving and provocative stuff.

My suggestion would be a novel from the University of Michigan Press...I
know you said no novels but this is an incredibly quick read. It came
out last fall and it's called WHERE NO GODS CAME [by Sheila O'Connor]
written in the voice of a 12 year-old girl who lives with her father in
San Diego. He takes a job on an oil rig in the Indian Ocean...he takes
the job to pay off bad gambling debts. She is shipped back to live with
her mother in Minneapolis. The mother legally abandoned her when she was
two. The mother is an alcoholic on the brink of serious illness due to
the progressive and degenerative nature of the disease...it's very well
done and I believe would fit your requirements.

Three stories off the top of my head are Louise Erdrich's "Saint Marie",
Susan Minot's "Lust", and Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl". "Saint Marie" is
about a Native American girl who goes to a convent, "Lust" is about
adolescent women negotiating their sexuality (also interesting because
it uses multiple points of view), and "Girl" is a type of intructions on
how to be a woman.

You might consider Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing." It's a
classic, very teachable, and about education in multiple ways. The
mother, who is narrating the story, is talking with her daughter's high
school advisor (or maybe a teacher) who has called with concerns about
the daughter. Very moving and provocative stuff.

Any number of Alice Walker stories would work, too. Check out the You
Can't Keep a Good Woman Down collection, especially "Everyday Use."

One possibly useful short story that comes to mind is Toni Cade
Bambara's "The Lesson" (an oft-anthologized and very teachable story).
It's more about "informal education": an African-American girl's
reaction to a neighbor's attempt to enlighten her and a group of other
poor children in the community about economic inequality, etc., by
taking them to F.A.O. Schartz in NY.

"No Name Woman" from Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior" is a
great short story that addresses issues of "learning" to be a woman in
Chinese culture. I would also suggest Gwendolyn Brook's short story
"Maude Martha." These works are fiction, and the kind of learning that
they address is that of learning about the ways in which women of color
are situated in patriarchal/racist discourses.

Have you considered looking at books intended primarily for the
adolescent market? One book that comes to mind is called My Louisiana
Sky, by Kimberley Willis Holt. My daughter read it when she was in 6th
grade. It'a a short novel, and is about a girl growing up in Louisiana,
in the home of her grandmother, who is the guardian to the girl's
parents, both of whom are "retarded". The story is about the girl's
struggle with her own growth, and her own awareness of the challenges
and limitations that face her parents. I think that you, and your class,
would enjoy reading it, and discussing it. (I read it in practically one
sitting!)

The House on Mango Street -- by Sandra Cisneros has some good chapters
on experiences with school. Each chapter is only 1-2 pages, so you could
probably pull the relevant ones out easily.

I have always found pulling chapters from Gilligan and Brown, or
Orenstein, or _Women's Ways of Knowing_, or Hancock just to name a few,
to be inspiring in lieu of a short story.  And of course bell hooks,
Maggie Humm Ed of Modern Feminisms.

You might want to try ~Never a Dull Moment: Teaching and the Art of
Performance~ by Jyl Lynn Felman (New York: Routledge, 2001.)  It is
the story of a feminist teacher and shares in "conversational form"
all that she considers as she prepares her classes as well as how her
students and colleagues respond.  It's a wonderful and practical read.
However, it is not fiction

I taught Women and Education courses many times in the 1970s, '80s and
'90s. I think autobiogrpahies are important; I used to assign a
different autobiography or memoir to each student and then we would
have a round table discussion of the books (e.g., The Road from
Coorain, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Black Ice, Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl). The short story I liked best was Alice Munro's
Boys and Girls; I don't know if it has been anthologized recently. You
could also use a chapter from Woman on the Edge of Time (I assigned
that novel in almost every upper division class I taught in the '80s
and '90s--it is always salient!) The film "Educating Rita" was an
excellent teaching film, and I often used "The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie," and two Australian films, "My Brilliant Career" and "The
Getting of Wisdom." An important documentary film that works very well
in women/education classes is "The Women of Summer"; I recommend it
highly.

several of the short stories in The Woman That I Am: The Literature
and Culture by Contemporary Women of Color by D. Soyini Madison will
work well.  I don't have the book with me right now, (it's in the
office and i'm at home) but off hand I think that "A Girl's Story,"
"Preciousness," "Two Deserts," among others, may be helpful

(1) Zitkala-Sa's "School Days of an Indian Girl," about a Sioux girl's
    forced assimilation in a mission school, originally published in
    "The Atlantic Monthly" 85 (1900)

(2) The chapter (I don't have the exact one) in Maxine Hong Kingston's
    "The Woman Warrior" about a young Chinese-American girl's
    experience in a California school.

(3) Chapter 3 in Audre Lorde's "Zami," a biomythography, about Lorde's
    experiences as a near-blind student in both a NewYork public and a
    Catholic school.

(4) Sarah Orne Jewett's "The White Heron." Although this is not about
    an institution of education, it is about a pre-pubescent girl's
    initiation (or postponement thereof) into the world of experience,
    symbolized by her refusal to tell a handsome hunter/ornithologist
    about the whereabouts of the rare heron.

Women's friendships : a collection of short stories / edited, with an
introduction and afterword, by Susan Koppelman.;

ALSO:

Nemiroff, Greta Hofmann, ed. Women's Changing Landscapes: Life Stories
from Three Generations. Toronto: Second Story Press, 1999. This is a
collection of pieces written by women about three generations of women
in their family, with introductions for each chapter (organized by
province). As you can imagine, most of the stories/interviews at least
mention the differences in education available to women throughout the
three generations. A favourite of mine in this collection is "Six
Ravens" by Roberta Kennedy about three generations of Haida women. This
project was undertaken in preparation for the 4th UN World Conference on
Women in Beijing, and I think the accounts of generational differences
among women in one family can be used in many ways in WS.

Dumont, Marilyn. A Really Good Brown Girl. London, Ontario: Brick Books,
1996. Dumont is a Metis poet and I've used several of her poems with
intro and upper year WS students, with wonderful responses. For this
topic I'd particularly recommend "Memoirs of a Really Good Brown Girl"
and "The Devil's Language."

The two Dropped Threads (one is subtitled "what we aren't told") books
are generally about women learning a variety of things they didn't
necessarily expect. Lots of possibilities there. Ed. Carol Shields et al.