“You Hafta Push”: Using Sapphire's Novel to Teach Introduction to American Government

Abstract

Using fiction in the classroom can dramatize public policy issues and political science concepts, therefore, making them more real and relevant to students. Sapphire's 1996 novel Push puts a face on welfare, rape, incest, child abuse, educational inequalities, homophobia, and AIDS. I also use this novel to discuss the public policy process, federalism, diversity, and bureaucracy. Push's main character, Precious Jones is the original child left behind. Drawing on surveys and reaction papers from 176 of my students collected in 2002 and 2004, I conclude that introductory political science students learn more about American government from reading Push than from the traditional lecture format. Women particularly report that Push has helped them learn difficult concepts and that they “learned a lot from the book.” Students who read the book come to empathize with Precious even though they recognize she is very different than they are. Recognition and empathy for those different than us is a key element in citizenship.

Keywords:

• diversity education
• political science pedagogy
• politics and literature

A draft of this article was presented at the American Political Science Association's 2nd annual Conference on Teaching and Learning Washington, D.C., February 19–21, 2005.

Notes

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Zuckert (1995, 189) writes, “The questions that led political scientists to look to works of art for enlightenment concern the aspects of human life that are most difficult, if not impossible, to study.” Laz (1996) makes a case for using science fiction, particularly Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for teaching sociology, and Lang and Lang (1998) advocate using Remains of the Day by Kuzuo Ishiguro to teach International Relations. Hip-hop music and poetry are used in the composition classroom (Harris 2005). Despite these suggestions for bringing nontraditional texts into the classroom, one of the leading figures in the politics and literature subfield finds that this subfield still lacks organization and systemization (Whitebrook 1993).

I've thought about substituting another work of fiction for Push because it is so graphic, but I have hesitated knowing that a longer and less engaging book might not hold my students' attention. Possible substitutions related to welfare policy are Eventide by Kent Haruf and Graced Land by Laura Kalpakian.

My school does not require diversity education as many universities do. While I believe that respect for diversity and the development of empathy are important democratic values to instill in our students, it is also important to respect their own views on the subject. Sometimes we must tolerate intolerance (See Wilson 2005).

One adherent of Friere's theories pointed to Push as ideally demonstrating his pedagogies, specifically in the teaching strategies modeled in the novel (Stapleton 2004).

Some of my students tell me that reading an obscenity is a sin. They try to blank out these words, but in some parts of the text there is not much left! Incidentally, allowing students to choose an opt-out assignment is a good idea. I use Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, which makes many of the same points without profanity.

Because the class breaks into “committees” this exercise can be used in large classes. The largest class I have ever led in this simulation is 60, but it could easily be done with many more than that.

I presented information on such cases as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), and the two recent cases from the University of Michigan: Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003).

This study is not definitive; more research on other types of universities, colleges, and community colleges would be useful to assess Push's—and other nontraditional literatures'—impact, but I am unaware of other political scientists using the book in this way.

These data are useful inasmuch as they show the characteristics of my conservative, rural, and lower-class students, but they are not representative of American college students as a whole. However, these students may well be the most difficult to reach either with academic material or lessons about citizenship, and their positive experience may suggest what a powerful tool Push is for reaching them.

When running a difference of means test on the two years, statistically significant differences were only found on a few variables. Students in 2002 were more likely to be majoring in a service-oriented career. Students in 2002, on average, also agreed more strongly with the statements “Reading Push helped me understand Precious' life,” “People like Precious exist in the U.S.,” and that “Reading the book” was important.