At the beginning of the school year, Crossroads Academy’s eighth-grade students read Fahrenheit 451. In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his allies memorize essential texts to carry knowledge forward for the benefit of future generations. In a way, these characters internalize what we refer to as the Core Knowledge sequence: they carry texts by Plato, Matthew, Shakespeare, Swift, and Thoreau in their minds and hearts.
As the culminating act of English 8, our students work together to memorize Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” The students have been preparing for this moment for close to four years. They read an abridged version of the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave in fifth grade; they read Douglass’s unabridged 1845 memoir at the beginning of seventh grade. Over their final two years at Crossroads Academy, they work with a number of texts studied by Douglass: the King James Bible, Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, and Caleb Bingham’s Columbian Orator.
On Friday, June 5, the eighth-grade students will meet at 10:30 am for their final English class at Crossroads. This time, there will not be a textbook. Why? Because “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” now lives in the collective memory of the class. Given the recent events and protests across our country, this unit of study connects particularly well to our school’s mission. We ask our students to “act honorably, and contribute actively to intellectual, cultural, and civic life.” Whether we join the protests or not, whether we are five years old or over 50, we all share a common responsibility to make our world a more equitable and a more just place—our students and future generations are counting on us. It is in this spirit that we invite you to join the English 8 students for this culminating experience that we will share as a community.
Contact Brad Choyt if you would like to attend the live Zoom event.
