2001-04-09
Back to school, posted at 10:47 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I had a great day in school today. We read some Maya Angelou with my Seniors and did an activity that I'm pretty proud of. First, the kids drew an index card with a marginalized person on it. "Jew living in Germany in 1940", "African American in the South, 1920", "Gay High School student in the closet", "Person with the beginning stages of Alzheimer's Disease", "A person in an English class for whom English is their 2nd language", "A woman scared to leave her husband who beats her", etc. There were about 15 of them. They drew them, and spent a few minutes asking what the heck they were there for while I took attendance. Then, we read the Angelou poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". As you have probably by now guessed, the kids had to take on the persona of the person whose card they drew and write a paragraph response explaining what their cage was. After some sharing and breakdown, they wrote another paragraph explaining what the poem meant to them - what their "cage" was. It was wonderful. The kids were able to put themselves in someone else's shoes for the first part, and that was good - I was surprised with the perceptiveness of their responses. But some of the second parts were absolutely amazing. One girl wrote about how her son is her cage, that although she loves him more than anything, that he is a lot of responsibility and prevents her from doing a lot of the things she would normally be doing. Others talked about their shyness, their inability to form relationships with the opposite sex (this from the star football player!), lack of a car, having to stay at home with parents... it was really good. With my sophomores, we're getting ready to put George on trial for the murder of Lennie from "Of Mice and Men." I've got kids set up to be lawyers, the bailiff, jurors, court recorders, etc. Tuesday is prep day. Wednesday is the day of the trial. I'm the judge. I can't wait. It's good to be back at school. I was so excited to get back today. I can't wait until my first day of school in the fall, when I have my own classroom. "The caged bird sings / with fearful trill / of the things unknown / but longed for still" That fits me and my job search and question of relocating to a tee right now. The one constant emotion in my life is longing - even though I don't really know what I'm longing for. This reminds me of the Tom Waits song "Shiver Me Timbers," which I only know as sung by Bette Midler. (I came across my old copy of "Experience the Divine" on my recent trip home.) Before singing it, Bette says, "Sometimes I sing this song and I think to myself that this song isn't about the sea at all. This song's about just trying to get someplace, just get out of it... you know, get out of whatever. Just get away." Here it is: I'm leavin' my fam'ly Leavin' all my friends My body's at home But my heart's in the wind Where the clouds are like headlines On a new front page sky My tears are salt water And the moon's full and high And I know Martin Eden's Gonna be proud of me And many before me Who've been called by the sea To be up in the crow's nest Singin' my say Shiver me Timbers 'Cause I'm a-sailin' away And the fog's liftin' And the sand's shiftin' I'm driftin' on out Ol' Captain Ahab He ain't got nothin' on me, now. So swallow me, don't follow me I'm trav'lin' alone Blue water's my daughter 'n I'm gonna skip like a stone So please call my missus Gotta tell her not to cry 'Cause my goodbye is written By the moon in the sky Hey and nobody knows me I can't fathom my stayin' Shiver me timbers 'Cause I'm a-sailin' away Yup, I'm feeling that way right now. Those first four lines... wow. I love how song lyrics can sometimes perfectly capture what I'm going through.