At the time of recording Jassi Kaur was finishing her first year of her undergraduate career with her eye on getting a degree in English. At this point her academic aspirations include earning a PhD, likely in English, and then teaching at the university level.
Her perspective on the Common Core is complex. There’s no way anyone could keep Jassi corralled in the four corners of a text for long, but she was intrinsically motivated to learn to use analytical comprehension skills within that space. She assesses the impact of close reading instruction on her analytical skills as transforming and defining. But she also describes the powerful impact on her thinking that reading The Joy Luck Club had on her life because she finally found herself not just looking into but represented in the textworld.
Jassi and I ran out of time to talk before we got to her experience this year at Sac State, but we did touch on it. On the morning of the interview she had to drive to campus for a noon Critical Thinking course, and I didn’t want to make her late.
I taught several semesters of the Critical Thinking class before retiring from Sacramento State and felt nostalgic as I remembered the joy of being lifted up in spirit by the academic innocence and power of learners fresh out of high school. I saw this innocence and strength in Jassi’s story as in Justin’s. Our future is in good hands.
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