Quote 1
"You've been fighting since you were born," he said. "You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope."
I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else's hope. I had to multiply my hope.
"Where is hope?" I asked. "Who has hope?"
"Son," Mr. P said. "You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation." (5.163-5.168)
Mr. P comes to visit Arnold during his suspension for throwing the geometry book. Instead of fussing at Arnold, though, Mr. P characterizes Arnold as a "fighter" – as someone who has faced adversity and who, unlike others on the reservation, won't give up.
Why do you think Arnold is so resilient, so hopeful? What does this say about who Arnold really is? Mr. P encourages Arnold to nurture his "hope" by leaving the reservation. Arnold decides to transfer to the Reardan school twenty-two miles away. What would you have done?
Quote 2
"If you stay on this rez," Mr. P said, "they're going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. We're all going to kill you. You can't fight us forever."
"I don't want to fight anybody," I said.
"You've been fighting since you were born," he said. "You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope."
I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else's hope. I had to multiply my hope.
"Where is hope?" I asked. "Who has hope?"
"Son," Mr. P said. "You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation." (5.163-5.168)
Mr. P visits Arnold's home after the incident with the geometry book and tells him that, even though the reservation is his home, Arnold must leave the reservation in order to survive. Why must Arnold go somewhere else in order to find hope? What does it mean when home is a place that harms you as much as helps you?
Quote 3
"When I first started teaching here, that's what we did to the rowdy ones, you know? We beat them. That's how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child."
"You killed Indians?"
"No, no, it's just a saying. I didn't literally kill Indians. We were supposed to make you give up being Indian. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren't trying to kill Indian people. We were trying to kill Indian culture." (5.40-5.42)
Mr. P explains to Arnold how the school teachers initially tried to make the school kids give up being Indians. Taking the Indian-ness out of the child was supposed to save the children, but notice how brutal the whole process was. Teachers not only beat and abused the children, they also stole away their "songs and stories and language and dancing." Which, do you think, would be worse? (We say they're both pretty darn terrible.)
If a teacher told you it was bad to be white or black or (insert your race/ethnicity here), would this change the way you thought about yourself?