All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren't Blue by Kate Youngblood

As a teacher, you try to meet the needs of every students and try not to have favorites. However, every once in awhile you find a student who is teaching you more than you can teach them. Kate was one of those. She was bright, well prepared, and energetic. Maybe, I gave a few sign posts along the way, but she was off and running. Here last ten years as a teacher have demonstrated her talent. We are thrilled when she takes the time to write a post for the blog.

Kate Youngblood has been teaching 9th and 11th grade English at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, Louisiana for the past ten years. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in English, secondary education. She later earned her M.A.Ed. from Wake Forest University. She has presented at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention five times and has been published as a co-author in Signal Journal and English in Education. Kate was selected as the Louisiana State High School Teacher of the Year in 2021. She can be reached at [email protected].

“We are not as different as you think, and all our stories matter and deserve to be celebrated and told” (Johnson ix).

I find myself, ten years into my teaching career in New Orleans, Louisiana,finally  facing censorship possibilities that have been creeping up more and more violently as realities. My state passed its own version of Florida’s sadly renown “Don’t Say Gay Bill” as my ninth year in the classroom came to a close, joining a growing number of states where anti-LGBTIA bills have passed. ​

These new restrictions put hate into action, demanding more creative ways to make sure all identity stories are told in schools, and requiring teachers like me to think more deliberately about the rationales of including texts, like George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto (2020), in classroom conversations. One way is by consistently grounding the use of the texts in course standards. 

Johnson’s evocative All Boys Aren’t Blue lends itself perfectly to rhetorical analysis, whether an introduction to the concept with younger students like 9th graders, or a refresher on the rhetorical situation for students enrolled in AP English Language and Composition. The very first standard (1.A) for AP Lang is: “Identify and describe components of the rhetorical situation: the exigence, audience, writer, purpose, context, and message.” ​

When I’ve used Johnson’s memoir in the past, I’ve used the story “Smile” as an essay option with English I students who have just been introduced to the elements of the rhetorical situation, and who have previously practiced identifying those elements with various TED talks. Students then select an essay to present on, first identifying the elements of the rhetorical situation, then identifying three choices made by the writer to further their purpose, finally constructing a thesis statement making an argument about the rhetorical situation of their selected essay. 

In this reimagining of the project, I give students who have a similar exposure to the rhetorical situation as described above, six essays to read from Johnson’s text: “Identity” (chapter 2, pages 36 - 51), Honeychild” (chapter 3, pages 52-64), “Nanny: The Caregiver, The Hustler, My Best Friend” (chapter 7, pages 128-143), “Daddy’s Second Chance” (chapter 8, pages 144-159), “A Lesson Before Dying” (chapter 10, pages 182-192), “Setting Myself Free or Setting Myself Up?” (chapter 13, pages 224-239). These selected essays work beautifully with identifying purpose, context, and message, but are purposefully selected because they allow students to unpack Johnson’s identity in a multi-faceted way, layering his sexuality with his race, his family, and his home. ​

It feels important to acknowledge the gravity of the situation that many teachers are facing right now: choosing to expose their students to voices that are real and relatable over the safety of their careers. In this time, I find turning back to the why incredibly important. As Johnson notes in their text: “There were no books for me to read in order to understand what I was going through as a kid. There were no heroes or icons to look up to and emulate. There were no road maps or guidelines for the journey” (Johnson 295). How beautiful and important it is to be able to hand students texts that potentially give them a sense of understanding or, equally important, a sense of empathy for others. 

If you’re looking for ways to introduce the conversation of censorship in with your discussion of this book or author, I recommend starting with this NPR piece: “Banned Books: Author George M. Johnson on the need to tell all people's stories”.
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I choose to continue to try to find ways to put those mirrors in the hands of my students, whether through projects like these that meet core standards while diversifying the voices of the authors my students encounter, or by keeping these books on my classroom shelves.