Tuesday, February 12th (the twelfth) 2019.

The missing elements

The marshalls don’t have heads :

• Maybe because they’re anonymous/unimportant

• Maybe the painter wants to protect their identity

• He wants us to focus on Ruby Bridges.

There are no fences :

• Maybe because the marshalls already protect the girl, they represent the fences/a shield for her.

• Maybe because the fences could take too much space/be too imposing.

• Maybe the frame of the painting represents the fences, or maybe we can see a barrier in the lines behind Ruby.

-The school is absent :

• It’s probably outside the painting (on the left), where they are going. The frontdoors are probably just in front of them.

• The painter represented the school in Ruby’s hands.

• The wall behind them probably belongs to the school.

• The school is only a pretext, it’s not important only the situation is.

-We can’t see the crowd :

• The painter probably wanted to make us feel like we were the crowd. He wants us to feel like guilty spectators.

• He wants us to feel uncomfortable/disturbed.

Monday, February 11th (the eleventh)

The people’s postures :

We can see that the position of Ruby and the marshalls are the same/are similar. They hold their hands in the same way : the right fist is forward whereas the left hand is straight. They look like they are marching to an important ceremony, their feet have the same position.

The symbols :

-The smashed tomato looks like an eagle, the symbol of the USA. (the golden eagle)

-the flag of the USA is hidden in the painting : on Ruby’s copybook we can see the white stars and the blue background, she’s got a red pencil and there are lines which can represent the 13 bands of the flag.

-The ruler : means that she has the law with her or that she’s bringing new rules to the school.

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For Tuesday 12/02: apprendre la leçon.

Friday, February 8th (the eighth) 2019

Interpretation

The lines on the pavement/sidewalk :

We can see that Ruby Bridges just crossed a line which can represent the past. The sidewalk is similar to a timeline and she’s moving forward step by step. (each step is a line on the floor).

Slavery→ segregation → desegregation → a new future

The crack in the wall can mean that the country is falling appart… it crosses the word ‘nigger’, so it shows that the insult belongs to the past.  

For Monday 11/02 : bien revoir la leçon. 

Tuesday, February 5th (the fifth) 2019

The problem we all live with

Norman Rockwell, 1964

This document is a hyper-realistic painting about Ruby Bridges going to school.

It is now in a museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

It was painted by Norman Rockwell, an American illustrator and painter in 1964. It denounces the problem of « desegregation » in the 1960s.

Norman Rockwell wants to make us/everybody feel guilty about this situation.

Hello everyone,

Today, we revised the differences between the videos and we talked about the painting

"The problem we all live with". You asked a lot of questions about the girl (Ruby Bridges).

Here is a video about her story.

For Tuesday 5/02: Regarder la vidéo (le livre est dans ma salle pour celles et ceux qui souhaitent l'emprunter) et faire des recherches sur Norman Rockwell (rédiger une dizaine de lignes sur l'artiste en anglais dans vos cahiers. )