SOPHS: The Powerful Play Goes On and You May Contribute a Verse (due Friday, May 27)

“That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse ….”

Walt Whitman offered this as a reason why YOU are important to this world, even midst the foolish and the faithless [people]. 

So tell me what “verse” you will contribute to the world, in four to eight sentences OR lines of verse (you DON"T have to rhyme). I suggest that you write in FIRST PERSON. For inspiration, look at the the April 2015 archives to see what last year's tenth graders wrote. But why bother? Be original!

Do not include your name in YOUR VERSE (but of course, indicate who you are, as always, when you post your comment). 

SOPHS: Mark Twain homework due Friday, May 20

Follow this link to read "The Story of the Bad Little Boy," a Mark Twain parody of a Sunday school story.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Sunday School stories were moral tales written for the little boys and girls who learned the difference between right and wrong at their local churches in Sunday School.

These stories always ended with a good dose of poetic justice. The good boys and girls were rewarded; the not-so-good boys and girls were summarily punished, learned the error of their ways, and turned out to be model boys and girls themselves.

Mark Twain pokes fun at these stories in "The Story of the Bad Little Boy."

Assignment

Read the story and then answer these questions in your notebook/IPad. NO NEED to post. 

1. "The Story of the Bad Little Boy" is a parody of the stories in Sunday School books. Define a parody.  

2. What details contribute to the humor of "The Story of the Bad Little Boy"? List at least four. 

3. What storytelling "tricks" does Twain use to make the story entertaining, if not humorous? By tricks, I specifically mean his rhetoric (clever words and phrases, figures of speech, sound devices, or rhetorical structures). List at least four. 

4. How does the penultimate (better look up this word) paragraph contribute to the sarcasm of the story? 

5. For what serious reason did Twain write this story? 

SENIORS (Your final blog): Dead Poet's Society Testament

This is your last writing assignment. Post OR turn in a paper copy (if you would rather not have your response posted for others to read) before Thursday, May 19. This assignment is worth 15 points. 

Each of the prompts requires at least 250 words of response. All of the prompts are inspired by The Dead Poets Society movie.

I am looking forward to reading the last words of wisdom that you'll impart at Schoolsville.
     
I cannot grade you on your opinion. You will be graded on your clarity of expression and your ability to support your opinion using specific ideas and examples. Better yet, refer to some of our readings this semester to defend or support your opinion.

Choose any ONE lower case "letter" to respond to. NOT one in each part. Just any ONE letter.

Part 1 People Can Change (minimum of 250 words)

a. Give me an example of how your opinion about something or someone changed as a result of changing YOUR point of view.
b. For you, what's the most "different" school or extra-curricular activity in which you've participated during your high school career, one that you would have never imagined yourself doing in a few years ago?
c. What person in the Class of 2016 has undergone the most positive change during his or her four years at St. Mark's? You need NOT mention a name.

Part 2 Institutions Can Change (minimum of 250 words)
d. What pages from what text that you had in high school what you like to rip out?
e. What's the most different, yet most powerful/significant high school class (period, activity, etc.) in which you took part?
f. What one thing would you change about St. Mark's to improve the school that would not change the basic educational and philosophical fabric of the school (e.g. in Welton, Charly wanted to admit girls)?
g. How can St. Mark's best discipline its students in order to promote proper behavior?

Part 3 "These are the things we stay alive for " (minimum of 250 words)
h. Words ARE important. What are the nicest words that someone ever said to you? Explain. Please, be able to quote, at least partially, these words.
i. What are the last words to live by that you wrote to yourself in a journal or otherwise?
j. How does your favorite song, band, singer etc. affect you (emotionally or rationally or both) in an important way? 

Modern American Themes: Facing the Future With Creativity

Teachers like me can get you (sometimes) to be a bit creative within the restrictive academic structure that is St. Mark's. Maybe you'll compose a sweet poem, write a whopper of a story, or do an Irish dance in front of your classmates (one little soph girl did!). But after your brief flight into the creative stratosphere, your prop plane sputters and  you parachute safely into the safe rows and desks of the classroom, willing, like a circus animal,  to jump through a hoop that I hold there for you while you are safely on the ground. And believe me, I'm NOT criticizing you.

During Wednesday's class, we heard Sir Kenneth Robinson speak on the need for a creativity revolution in education. Here are six things that he spoke about in his TED talk:

1.  Kids will take a chance: e.g. the picture of God and “Frank sent this”

2.  “All children are born artists” Pablo Picasso.

3. Robinson’s book Epiphany, and one of its subjects, Gillian Lynne, who became a famous choreographer.

4 . The present educational system is like strip mining, looking for academic excellence only and not creativity. 

5 . There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, "If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish."

6. We should educate our children’s whole being so that they can face this future.

    Normally, I ask three direct questions and ask you to respond to one. This time, however, I want YOU to think of your own prompt that is based on anything in Sir Ken's talk. I'd like to give you some suggestions, but I want you to think; I want you to respond to the talk in any way. Anything more than 100 words will do. With this assignment, I'm more interested in your original ideas or experiences than your ability to write. 

So here's my story...

    

    In 1974 I was a white and (not completely) nerdy senior at St. Elizabeth's High School, a decent basketball player and golfer, without a musical muscle in my body. But I was convinced by my friend Bobby Szczecinski to try out for the school musical, Once Upon a Mattress. I didn't get a part---I was "just" part of the chorus---but I'm glad I went through the experience. I was christened Sir John, had one memorable line that I "killed" (that's good), and wore purple tights (why do knights have to wear tights?) on stage in front of thous... well, a few hundred people. That was one time that I took a chance. It was my "picture of God" and "Frank sent this" moment. 

    No, I didn't become an actor,  but if I break out in song or play a tune on Youtube once in a while during class, you know that it's because I have a love of music that includes cheesy show tunes. And I encourage ALL of you to become part of a stage production one day. You might discover a new "love" of the limelight and the smell of greasepaint.