As he does every year, Bill Rhatican assigned his AP History students at West Potomac High School with writing a major essay. This past year, they were asked to look at what immigration is doing to this country. Instead of merely grading and returning them, he took it one step further. Rhatican had the series of essays on immigration written by the 37 advanced placement students published as a book.
"And Still They Come" is the title of the book; it was edited by Rhatican and includes a foreword by him as well. The book is now on sale through www.Authorhouse.com, www.Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble’s www.B&N.com, and Borders’ www.bordersstores.com Web sites. He hopes to have a book signing at a local book store sometime in August. Rhatican said that he was helped by Sabrina Buckley, West Potomac’s head librarian, who, once he decided to publish, really pressed to see that it got done.
"Immigration is a favorite topic of mine because it cuts across barriers of time and geography. It didn't matter when they came here — all immigrants experienced the same negative reaction from the government and the people already here as did other immigrants in other eras until lately. It was a good lesson for the kids and it crossed 250 years of American history," Rhatican said.
"When I began to read their essays, I was really impressed with them as being thoughtful, articulate and revealing — really good work, and it seemed a shame that no one would see their work except me. So, I began to look for a publisher who would put it together for us. Actually, we had a bound version done through the county back in December that did not meet my expectations."
Rhatican, who is planning to use whatever money is made for next year’s publication, said that he really hopes people will buy the book to read it. "The students really did nice work and they should be applauded — as should their English teachers. I'm a certified English teacher and was pleasantly surprised at how few edits I had to make in their manuscripts."
IN THE BOOK, the high school seniors talk about several different groups of immigrants, some from earlier times and some that are more frequent. In the latter case, some are written by students who are immigrants themselves, like Kwadwo Danquah, who wrote about migrating from Africa.
Students profiled immigrant groups from Africa, Cuba, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Sweden. Some essays were written by individuals, while others were written by groups of 2-3 students. Several essays were written about the Irish immigration; one of those, titled "The Great Irish Struggle," was written by Eric Ahle, Christ Cutting and Phil Smith. They wrote how the Irish struggled to make it in this country despite discrimination.
CUTTING ENJOYED the experience and said, "I think it is awesome [having a book published]. It’s a unique experience that most high school students don’t get to experience. I’m extremely pleased — Mr. Rhatican put a lot work into it. It’s awesome what he did for us. He taught us a lot this year."
Also writing about the Irish was Mike Rosenthal-Mix; he selected this group because his family is Irish.
"I think the Irish had tough luck, but there were other groups that had as hard a time," Rosenthal-Mix said. "Some groups have still not assimilated, but the Irish have."
As part of their assignment, the writers were asked to offer their opinions about immigration and how they think our leaders should address this issue. Their views range from left to right; from "open the gates to all" to the "pull up the drawbridge" mentality.
Cutting didn’t want to speak for the other’s point of view, but feels strongly that there should be no limits on immigration. "It has made the culture it is today," Cutting said.
Rosenthal doesn’t feel as strongly as Cutting, but said that he does tend to lean more towards the open gates point of view than not.
"It was fun to do and I look forward to seeing next year’s [book]" Rosenthal-Mix said.