Still Unknown

Abstract

This chapter, a high school English teacher offers a series of vignettes about a student, Teo, as he navigates the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the complexities of migration, and his own ambivalence about staying in school. Drawing on classroom artifacts, as well as novels, the author interweaves the narratives about a single student, bringing them into conversation with the work of Janet Miller and Maxine Greene. The chapter closes with a reflection on Edra Soto’s GRAFT, an installation at the Whitney, as it suggests a metaphor for the fragmentary and fleeting nature of classroom encounters. Overall, the chapter advocates for a curriculum that honors context and particularity, and remains inquiring and wondering, even in a technologically-mediated world.