“They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – - Carpe – - hear it? – - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” Robin Williams says this when he plays Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society. This movie is why I became a literature teacher.
I was a literature teacher for only a couple of years, then NCLB came along. Everyone was too worried about AYP to teach literature anymore. Now, it’s all about teaching reading. Don’t get me wrong! I think everyone is now a better teacher because of NCLB and teaching reading. However, we don’t have that same passion for teaching reading as we did for teaching literature.
I wanted to teach about Jerry attaining a form of independence from his mother in Doris Lessing’s “Through the Tunnel“, how Shylock is a tormented character, as well as a tormentor in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice“, and how the sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of holding Jem or Boo responsible in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
But, who can teach literature when it’s all about reading? I feel in love with all of this in college. (I can’t even name one book I read before college. *gasp* Scandalous…I know!) If I would have known things would have turned out this way, I don’t know if I would have taken the path that I did. That, in itself is sad. What does that say about me?
I do not have an answer. I do not believe that this will ever change. In a way, I am glad that I am not teaching in a classroom anymore. At other times, I wish I was back in the classroom so I could use these stories to teach “reading”.
