The Scarlett Scar

When I have to say that the most disaparaging experiences in discovering and learning literacy have occured in my later years (or atleast I remeber these!). I was assigned to read "The Scarlet Letter" in the eleventh grade. I iinitially deemed this text as an alright story. Yet, when the teacher and class discussed it in a group, it turned the experience sour. I attended a public high school,yet this particular teacher was very religious. She was of a Christian denomination, she let this be known and made no qualms about it. This teacher used the classroom as her pulpit, and verbally discouraged those who did not agre with her. This teacher also verbally condemned the main chracter Hester Prynne for adulterous acts. There was no discussion about the themes, the context, the environment, history, moral, or human nature brought to topic in the book.
Furthermore, a paper i wrote on this book was marked down because I discussed the danger of a "crowd mentality", blindness of a "moral" people, and the influence of religion.

This experience actually made me very self-concious from expressing my thoughts. It also made me confused about the process of critical reading and understanding a text. I was old enough to disagree with my teacher, but not comfortable enough to express it. The teacher made the process of reading or writing any works in her class very unnerving and disappointing. She made it clear in a very intimidating way that only one person could be right, and that would be her. The most disturbing part, to me, is that I still have a negative feeling when I hear about Hester Prynne, or the Salem Witch Trials. I loathe the books I read in that class, because of the overall experience.