Thoughts on Life Inside and Outside of Room 26
TravelTrace...5/5/2013 Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. Why do I travel to the UK? Books. English. Culture. Heritage. Tea.
Literature When I was growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia [there's a hint there, even] I studied primarily British Literature. All through high school my courses focused on writers from the UK - Wm. Shakespeare, Johnathan Swift, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, H. G. Wells, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Then, there are the poets: Tennyson, Browning, Chaucer, Milton, Pope, Blake. These were my stories. The only North American writers that I ever encountered were famed Canadian L. M. Montgomery who graciously penned Anne of Green Gables and Margaret Atwood, who wrote my favorite Alias Grace and very popular The Handmaid's Tale. After living in the imaginations of these UK writers, it is always a wonder for me to visit their lands, and walk where they did. I can share this anecdotally: The first time I was in Canterbury Cathedral, I was 17 years old. I knew that St. Thomas Becket was murdered there, and some of the history, and was awed at the size and scope of the place. After teaching Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales for years, I went there with another English teacher and 11 students. I was amazed, silenced, and profoundly thankful for the opportunity to visit once again; what an extraordinary place. Language I really enjoy traveling to Britain because I don't have to worry about not speaking the lanugage. I have a little French - studied through my senior year in Canada - but it gets rough when I don't get to practice it regularly. It takes the edge off of travel like nothing else can. Culture and Heritage, and Tea My parents, my family, are Canadian. My mum was born and raised - for her youngest years - in The Netherlands. Her family fled the war and arrived in Canada when she was a young school girl. My father grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada. We all share a history in Holland, and on one of our journeys, mum and I went to her childhood home. Although I grew up within five minutes of the US boarder crossing, I never had any strong ties to the US or this history here. I always thought of myself, and still do, as a Canadian: a tea drinking, Britain loving, sonnet knowing, outside dwelling, Union Jack loving, Royal Family watching kinda girl. Why the UK? I love the UK. I love that there is a City of London, inside of London. I love that Henry VIII lived in London, and his daughters, the queens Mary I and Elizabeth I. I love Princess Diana. I love the Thames as an old highway. I love the pinstripes, the tea and shortbread; a pint with some chips and a chat after work, as seen here. I love that the culture is close to what I know, but has evolved so much more, from so long ago. That is why I go.
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This Is Just To Say...5/1/2013 This above all: to thine ownself be true, When I look at my students and think about saying goodbye, I struggle for something to share that they will remember. My senior courses are student focused and literature driven, so it seems an odd ending for me to be the focus of anything at the end. I do, though, want to say poignant things to them, to make them pause in this ending, this beginning, and remember the wisdom of Shakespeare.
Throughout our time together we endeavor to prove that Shakespeare, though "old and overdone" is relevant and is even magic to our own culture and experiences. He writes of love, loss, joy, kindness, relevance, disgust, progress, bigotry, gentleness, courage, and any number of things that my community of learners {myself included} is experiencing or will experience in the years ahead. When I was in high school Shakespeare's work was profound, powerful, distant. As a teaching adult, his words are now, here, and present. I had to fight for this course to run, with someone who said "Why bother with Shakespeare, he's not relevant, he's too old fashioned and kids don't relate to him anymore. I never read it in school, so why put these kids through that?" I give thanks to that person for saying those words, as they drive me to kindle the fire of the students in my classroom to recognize the Bard as a constant presence and influence. The stories in his folio match the experiences of the students that I teach each day, and it is uplifting and joyous to know that, despite our advanced age of technology and learning, we still, at the core, are a community of humanity. We celebrate, we sorrow, we rejoice, we mourn, we dance, we pontificate, we sing and we belong to the human race. That is what William Shakespeare wanted us to feel, even now, hundreds of years after his plays were 'played'; and we do. When I teach speeches, I ask that my scholars color each sentence, so as not to be fooled by lines. I did that here. I chose the speech of old Polonius to his son, Laetres, as he prepares to begin his scholarly endeavors. A caring adult's advice for a young person, leaving home, and entering the world. I hope they know that they can come home to EK and know that they are supported, cared for, loved. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear ’t that th' opposèd may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell. My blessing season this in thee. "Don’t say what you’re thinking, and don’t be too quick to act on what you think. Be friendly to people but don’t overdo it. Once you’ve tested out your friends and found them trustworthy, hold onto them. But don’t waste your time shaking hands with every new guy you meet. Don’t be quick to pick a fight, but once you’re in one, hold your own. Listen to many people, but talk to few. Hear everyone’s opinion, but reserve your judgment. Spend all you can afford on clothes, but make sure they’re quality, not flashy, since clothes make the man—which is doubly true in France. Don’t borrow money and don’t lend it, since when you lend to a friend, you often lose the friendship as well as the money, and borrowing turns a person into a spendthrift. And, above all, be true to yourself. Then you won’t be false to anybody else" (Crowther). Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear Hamlet.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. I am...A teacher of students of British, World and Contemporary Literature. Archives
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