The Curmudgeons not-so-mini-rant of the day - I was doing some painting in a room at the school one afternoon, about an hour after school was over. It was pretty quiet and I had the door open. Two English teachers, both ladies, met in the hallway and began a conversation. I wasnt eavesdropping but I could clearly hear everything they were talking about. One teacher was quite incredulous at the fact students just could not ‘get’ this and that from the current literary work they were reading. This took me back to my high school days when I would have been one of those students. I wasnt stupid. In fact I was pretty smart. Math, science, social studies, and even the mechanics of grammar were no problem for me. I never had to study or break a sweat over any subject except the one these teachers were now talking about, pulling hidden meanings out of literature and writing about them. That was so impenetrable to me it used to make me ill. It wasnt until much later in life that I began to see through the mystery. The truth is that many kids, boys in particular, have neither the maturity nor the life experience to ‘get it’ when it comes to much of the literature that is force fed them in school. Many girls do better because they mature more quickly than boys, and girls brains seem to be better equipped, or at least better utilized, for emotional and relational matters. (NOTE: If you are one of those people that have been educated into the fool’s notion that there is no difference between boys and girls except for imposed gender bias, please stop reading now. You will not ‘get it’ and you’ll probably get mad. ) I was nearing middle age before it started getting easy to see underlying themes. I had lived enough life to now ‘get it.’ I can now write without nearly having a stroke and sometimes I even enjoy it. When I began teaching a filmmaking class, where we put a lot of emphasis on the story being the most important element of good film, I knew I would be placing the same sort of literary challenge to my students. I always address the issue right up front, tell the students of my experience, and try to give them a mechanical/formulaic method of creating a story for film. My opinion is that everyone can do this and get adequate results. For those that have actual talent, that will arise anyway and what I do won’t hurt them. Don’t sweat bullets trying to force creativity, just get a reasonable introduction, complication, and resolution and you’ll be fine. Anyway, back to my current story. I was really tempted to step out and tell them of my personal literary journey, but I decided I should just keep painting. After all, they are English teachers, and, presumably, were once girls that probably ‘got’ Wurthering Heights when they were five years old. I’m glad I just kept painting because something interesting and humorous developed. At some point their conversation took a turn towards movies. “My husband was so excited when the second or third Star Wars movie came out. I couldnt understand why. I saw the first one and it was so stupid. That big hairy thing walking around making noise…..,” and so on. You don’t ‘get’ it? Star Wars is a mystery to you? You can’t clearly see the grand themes of good versus evil, patience versus impulse, altruism versus selfishness? You don’t recognize the classic hero’s quest established in Greek epics? Could it be because you’re a girl and youve always understood girl things, which is as it should be, but you have always dismissed boy things? Think about it. As for me, Ive, of course, always understood boy things and, over time, learned to understand and appreciate girl things. In fact, for the most part, I would now much rather see a movie with a strong human story than explosions and car chases and special effects. I still like those if they are really good but don’t have time for the gratuitous. So in conclusion (cliched I know, but we have to have a conclusion), maybe it is time for English teachers to recognize that a lot of their male students and some of their female students are not capable at this point in time of ‘getting’ Bronte novels. Perhaps you should use Star Wars.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:56:53 +0000
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