A LITTLE LESS NOISE THERE

Before I start complaining about this'n'that, I want to say that yesterday was one of those amazing amazing days...all three classes went well. After searching the Bruce catalog, I played the new Springsteen song "devils and dust" (narrated by a soldier in the Iraq war). I wanted my students to understand the relationship between fear and violence and this song seemed to speak to it ("fear's a powerful thing/it can turn your heart black you can trust/take your god-filled soul/and fill it with devils and dust"). Both groups of sophomores actually did a great job connecting the narrator's journey from human to savage to Jack's similar journey, which was exactly what I was hoping for, and despite hearing varied complaints about the song's wackness, I think they really liked it. We read the book, and I asked for their homework last night a prediction for who was going to die first. They got very heatedly into it, most correctly guessing that it was Simon and Piggy, but a few wildcards piped in with the idea that Jack's violence was going to come back and get him. If only!

Today was another story...


The day began with a radio announcement that Ms. Principal wanted "No Movement today!" because there had been three huge fights outside school this morning. We understood that it happened because security is now making our kids take off their shoes as well as belts, empty pockets, etc, and so the warm weather and longer waits stirred things up. So I absolutely could not get my third period kids to focus on anything. Dice were rolling, giggles were spreading, I gave up on playing the LOTF tape and gave them a quick quiz, hoping they'd come off with a few main plot points.

The teacher next door told me that my fourth period kids always make so much noise that he wants to come in and rescue me every day, which pissed me off of course. But at least my six-seventh period sophomores were BRILLIANT today. We breezed through grammar, discussed Lord of the Flies in record time, and had enough time left in the end for me to teach them a basic lesson in FREUD!!! I taught them the significance of superego, id and ego, and then elicited the characters and symbols that represented id and superego (FYI: jack and the Pig's head/Lord of the Flies are id, Ralph and the Conch Shell are the superego) and we talked about how on the island, not only are everyone' individual ids taking over, but the allegorical ID of Jack is assuming chiefship. In a sense, we mapped out the major symbolic structure of the whole book. I think we were all amazed. I had a glow about it, despite my freshmen cursing at each other for forty-straight minutes.


So that is that for today! Hopefully things will quiet down as finals approach. Tomorrow we read the passage where Simon dies-- my kids who have read ahead (READ AHEAD????) are already horrified and sad....