Breaking Night by Liz Murray

Like The Freedom Writers Diary, Breaking Night tells a very different story than the movie version of Liz Murray's life.   One page that really impacted me was Liz's description of a life that revolves around "right now."  "Right now bills were due," "right now Ma had the shakes and needed a fix," "right now I had no clean clothes."   This, juxtaposed with the concepts of middle class life in the next paragraph, showcases the difference between living from paycheck to paycheck and being able to plan for a future.  Liz writes, "[f]or people on our side of the wall, talking about the future always meant our near future and the greatest concern was the immediate solution to our most urgent needs" so "we did not set our sights on anything as lofty as long-term planning"  (page 249).   This is the life that many of my students are living.   Why worry about next week's test when I don't know whether I will have food or even a place to stay tonight?   How can we expect students to look 6 years into the future and aim for a high school diploma followed by a degree when they are living in these circumstances?  

Making high school course offerings more relevant to life, as is done at Humanities Preparatory Academy, would go a long way to accomplishing this.  The courses are designed "to cultivate an environment of authenticity and encourage a depth of thought" (page 253).   While I am hopeful that the Common Core curriculum will move us in that direction, we are still bound to the standardized testing that doesn't fit into the model of writing for a real audience or successfully creating meaningful presentations about topics that interest the student.  

But back to the book.....

Liz's story is inspiring in that she was able to overcome obstacles created by her parents and by herself.   She makes no excuses for the bad decisions that she made, and her regret over some of those decisions is sincere and heart-breaking.   The timeline of events makes more sense than that of the movie, as do some of the situations she finds herself in.   Being alone, except for her friend Chris, is more dramatic than having a network of friends who are not homeless and are able to sporadically help her, but being motivated to earn an education by woman who became successful through attending an alternative school is far more realistic than a sudden graveside decision following her mother's death. 

I hope that the movie is a gateway for my students to read the memoir, as there is so much more they could learn from the memoir.   I hope that teachers and guidance counselors read the memoir as it helps even those of us who have lived for a period of time in poverty see the student who is hiding behind the frequent absenteeism and lack of motivation to study for a test on literature that in no way applies to life.