I would agree completely with the view expressed below that literature can act as a wonderful bridge between English, History, Geography, Social Studies and other school subjects. I would go so far as to say that literary texts should not and cannot every fully be separated from the historical and cultural moment in which they were created, and that they speak to, if they are not the same thing.
During my practicum I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach a class on The Book of Negroes, which I had just finished reading and absolutely loved. The class that was studying this text was Humanities 10, which fully integrates English and History 10 into one course, for which students get one grade and have one double block of class. I was excited at the prospect of teaching such a class, and this novel, as with Obasan, is ideal for such a lesson. Every part of this novel is steeped in the geographical, social and cultural history of the Atlantic slave trade, and woven into the beautiful and moving narrative are the stories of people who actually lived this reality.
For my lesson, I chose to focus on the theme of language in the novel, and deal with it first from a historical perspective, and then link these facts to the novel through close analysis and guided discussion. I introduced to the class the history of contact languages, showed them a short video that had people speaking the slave language, Gullah, that they had read about in the text, and then had them speak the language themselves. We then had a discussion about the role language would have played for people living in such situations as the slaves in the novel do, and this turned into a discussion of language in our own lives. To my delight, the students began on their own to make connections between this discussion and The Book of Negroes, connections I was planning on guiding them towards soon after. I asked them in groups to come up with brief statements that they felt summarized the role of language in the life of the novel’s protagonist, and to find evidence from the text to support their statement. In a follow-up lesson, we used these statements to do some work with thesis development.
Seeing how these students naturally made connections between the historical facts and the novel reinforced for me the belief that we as teachers need to promote and foster these cross-curricular connections whenever possible, and should work towards making it an integral element of our teaching practice. As Howard M. Miller said, “By providing historic, social and cultural information, we can lay the groundwork for helping our students move beyond understanding the most obvious aspects of the story to find deeper meanings embedded within it.”

After watching Ken Robinson speak on creativity, and reaching the unexpected ending of Life of Pi, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the arguments both of these very different pieces were making. I believe that both, rather explicitly, make an argument for the importance of creativity in our society. Ken Robinson discusses the ways in which creativity can benefit our children, and in the long run, society at large. The creative process is an essential part of children discovering who they are as people, as they grow and become the members of society they are destined to be. How can we expect students to fully live this discovery process if we cut it short, most clearly by devaluing creative activities, such as dance, art and drama? Robinson argues that we are on a path to self-destruction if we do not revolutionize the educational system and drastically reevaluate our priorities. To him, it is nothing less than a matter or survival.

In Pi, Martel makes an argument for creativity as a survival strategy as well, as an escape from a harsh reality. He points out that it makes no difference to Mr. Okamoto which of the versions of reality he accepts. It does not matter to him whether Pi lives in his created world or the terrifying reality, but to Pi it may mean the difference between life and death. The same could be said for the children we encounter in schools; in the long run it makes no difference in our lives as educators what path our students chose to follow, but for them it is of the utmost importance. For many children, creative outlets such as art, writing, and drama allow them an escape from their everyday lives, if escape is what they need. Having a creative outlet is arguably one of the best coping strategies a child in a stressful situation can employ. As educators, we have a responsibility to support our students in their creativity as much as we can. It doesn’t matter if what students create approximates reality; the process of creating, of using ones talents and imagination, is extremely valuable, or as Robinson argues, essential to survival.