Controversial Subject Matter
After thinking back to my adventures in the library the other day, I also remembered how difficult term paper time was. Some kids might have been content with topics like Yosemite National Park or the First Thanksgiving, but not I. When it came to research papers, I liked my topics rich and fascinating -- and in the mind of my sixth grade teacher, that also meant controversial.
In the fourth grade, my first experience in the world of research papers, we were all supposed to choose a country. Naturally, I picked China because my grandmother had recently visited there. I also really liked egg rolls, so it seemed like a great fit. In addition to writing the paper, we also gave presentations. I wore the pajamas my grandmother had brought me as a souvenir, and after a trip to the Asian market with my father (a fascinating outing to what I thought was a secret underworld, but was really just a strip mall in a part of town people from Mountain Brook didn't shop), my mother and I made chicken fried rice that we served to the class.
(I also remember not being able to understand who in the world came upwith the rules for a bibliography. Were the strange rules and offpunctuation really necessary? Reverse indentation? Seriously? I'm notsure I get it to this day.)
In the fifth grade, the field was wide open, so I chose the rain forest as my subject matter. While this might have seemed pretty innocuous -- and maybe it was -- I had just read about deforestation and had to know more. So, really, I like to think of that term paper as the first manifesto of a budding environmentalist.
But, the sixth grade was the most difficult year of all. Our teacher kept up with our papers at each stage of the process, so we earned points for a certain number of note cards, an outline, the rough draft, etc. While it seemed tedious at the time, there was no danger of the college research paper written the night before its due date.
The first step to the process was deciding on a topic. When the time came to earn those five points, I scribbled "Roe v. Wade" on a slip of paper and handed it in.
The teacher called me over after class. "Is this really the topic you want to do?" I nodded yes. "Why on earth is this what you want to research?" she said.
"Everyone talks about it all the time. And politicians always bring it up. I just want to know what it's all about."
"OK, then," she said, "but you're going to have to get a signed permission slip from your parents."
I had no idea why I needed permission to research a topic that was on the news and in books. I figured that if something was in the library, it was fair game. (Naive? Sure. I didn't really get what "controversial" was all about yet.) I went home, gave my parents the exact same reason for wanting to look into the topic, and being the liberals that they are, they signed my permission slip and sent me back to school the next day.
Reading and research were OK in their books.
When I went to actually research the topic though, I realized I was in a bit over my head for a 1,200 word paper. (An opus at the time, but not exactly enough room to cover the intricacies of one of the Supreme Court's most influential rulings.) Plus, the same librarian was still around, and I knew better than to ask her for help again.
Never one to back down from my school work, I prepared to tell my teacher that I needed to change topics, and I already had a back-up in mind. The next day I gave her a new piece of paper. "Really?" she said. I nodded again. "I'm going to need another permission slip."
I went home and had yet another conversation with my parents. They, of course, agreed to my wishes. My mother just had one caveat, "Please don't ever tell your grandmother you're doing a research paper on witchcraft. I don't think that will go over well."
On the bright side, by the next year when I chose Rev. Jim Jones and Jonestown as a topic, my teacher actually seemed relieved.