If you think that meeting up with someone you only know on twitter is weird, try doing it with your kids in tow! I should have known that Sarah and I had a lot of the same views on parenting when she agreed to it. Lucky for us, it worked out well. Sarah has some really smart things to say about immigration and raising a bi-cultural kiddo. Today I am guest posting at her place about one of my students who happens to be bi-cultural.

I ask them to write poetry in the style of Walt Whitman. We read his poem “I hear America Singing” and I ask them to copy this famous poet’s form, but find a subject matter that is all their own. I get ten poems about the football team, another three about the song on the lacrosse fields, a few about soccer and basketball. My 29 student class has only one girl. Most of the boys are of the athletic variety. The boys who don’t love sports love music. They write guitars and famous musicians. They wear heavy metal t-shirts. All of my students fall neatly into the two categories, except for Emmanuel.

Emmanuel immediately has a problem with the assignment. Walt Whitman wrote about America, and I have asked him to change the subject. He wants to write about America too. Emmanuel loves America. Read more about Emmanuel here.