Still Waters in a Storm

January 20, 2020
In this poignant and politically minded debut, educator and theater director Haff explains the pedagogy behind Still Waters in the Storm, the after-school program he founded in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in 2008, and dramatizes his students’ efforts to translate Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote from 400-year-old Spanish into modern English and stage a bilingual musical adaptation. After resigning his public school teaching job and entering treatment for bipolar depression, Haff started Still Waters as a way to keep in touch with former students. The curriculum evolved from basic homework help to literature discussion groups, Latin instruction, mentoring, and weekly author workshops. “Everything we do,” Haff writes, “is based on the same ritual of reading a text, discussing it together, writing a response, and taking turns reading our responses to the group.” He interweaves the story of his mental breakdown and recovery with criticisms of the New York City public school system, along with accounts of his students analyzing Cervantes’s antiquated language and developing scripts and songs connecting the plot to their own experiences as the children of undocumented immigrants living under the threat of arrest and deportation. Haff eloquently traces the journey one student makes “from shy to brave,” and makes a convincing case for the power of “mutual attention and cooperation” in the classroom. Educators, immigration activists, and school reformers will find inspiration in this frequently lyrical account.

February 1, 2020
The story of an after-school program that helps immigrant children adjust to their new American life. What does reading and translating Don Quixote, published in the early 17th century, have to do with modern-day life for immigrant children in Bushwick, Brooklyn? Quite a lot, according to Haff, a theater director and former high school English teacher, who set up Still Waters in a Storm for children of undocumented immigrants. As he writes, the author chose Cervantes' work because "that book is everything human--it is funny and tragic and beautiful and disgusting and smart and stupid--and because it was written in Spanish, the native language of my students and their families." By reading the quirky tale of a man who never gave up his dreams, Haff's students have found new meaning in their own lives despite the constant fear of deportation amid the current toxic landscape surrounding immigration, an atmosphere inflamed by the current presidential administration. Not only did the students read the book and translate it out loud; they also adapted it into a series of musicals that they wrote. They became Kid Quixotes, acting out their own versions of the story, which they performed in multiple venues. Haff also includes his own story of being an educator suffering from bipolar depression and how this project has positively impacted his life as well. This is a decidedly upbeat book full of compassion and an attentiveness to language, and Haff imparts pertinent lessons regarding truth, hope, thoughtfulness, awareness, friendships, and what it means to be genuine. The narrative also carries the weight of what each child must endure as an immigrant, including racism, distrust, and fear, and shows how they have worked to overcome these obstacles via songs, acting, drawings, and imaginative retellings of their lives. A kindhearted, engaging story of helping modern immigrant children via a 400-year-old classic text.

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March 1, 2020

Still Waters in a Storm, a one-room schoolhouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, serving Spanish-speaking immigrant children, was a safe space--both for the students who went there after school and for its founder, Haff, a teacher battling bipolar depression. Under Haff's guidance, the students, who ranged in age from five to 17, embarked on a five-year project to translate Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote into English and turn it into a musical. Since their language and written skills differed, they had to listen to one another carefully and work together, adopting a version of what psychologist Lev Vygotsky called "scaffolding," or collaborative learning. Despite the threat of ICE agents and deportation, the students persevered, performing their work throughout New York. Haff structures his stirring, poignant narrative much like Don Quixote, incorporating poems, songs, and dialogue; inserting stories within stories; and illustrating that even seemingly disparate tales are connected. VERDICT This is an inspiring account that reminds us that with trust and empathy, there's no limit to what students and teachers can accomplish together.--Jacqueline Snider, Toronto

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