A memory
Recently I watched an old clip of Hugh Laurie reciting a poem, a fairly incomprehensible one, made more incomprehensible (and funny) by the way he gabbled it out so fast. It reminded me of when I first started teaching. I was in an all-boys high school, and we junior teachers were often rostered on to supervise detention.
Detention was for all kinds of reasons — giving cheek, being late, not wearing the school tie and many other reasons. The boys in detention ranged from ages 11 to 17. Theoretically they were supposed to spend the half hour doing homework, or at least some kind of work, but of course they either claimed they had no homework or had done it, and since they were from all levels and all subjects, there was no way to check.
I hated seeing them just sitting there bored, so I came up with a plan. The next time I was on detention, I brought in a pile of poetry books. I told the boys that they could leave as soon as they learned some poetry off by heart and could recite to me 12 or 20 lines (I can’t remember exactly how many I set) of one of the poems in one of the books. They weren’t happy about it — they were sure they’d never be able to remember that much — but their only other alternative was to sit and do nothing.
So they scoured the books, looking for a poem they liked and thought they could learn pretty quickly, and one by one they came forward and recited their lines. They had to be word perfect, and when they were, I’d let them go. They were thrilled, thinking they’d got out of detention early. I was delighted to have exposed them to some free-range poetry.
Months later I’d be on yard duty (supervising) at recess and lunch time as the boys ate, played sport or whatever, making sure there was no trouble or dangerous play, and every now and then a boy would come up to me and say “Hey miss, I still remember this.” And they’d proudly recite (or rattle off) their lines of poetry.
These were often the naughty boys, who had a bit of a reputation, and I loved that they’d be bailing me up to proudly recite a bit of poetry.
Thanks, Hugh Laurie, for sparking that memory.
What a wonderful story, Anne! Clearly you were a born teacher as well as a born storyteller.
Thanks, Mary Jo. I do love teaching, but I come from a teaching family, so it’s probably in the genes.
I have always been terrible at memorizing, whether it be poetry, theater lines, or song lyrics.
I would have been stuck in detention until the end of time!
I’m delighted to hear the lessons stuck for some of the boys.
LOL Robin. Detention only went for half an hour, so it wouldn’t have lasted that long. But most of the boys initially were certain they couldn’t memorize that many lines, and surprised themselves when they did, and in less than half an hour! I think it’s good for people to memorize stuff. But these days people mainly only learn song lyrics and then by accident, a lot of the time, not sitting down deliberately to learn them. I learned a few poems when I was at school and can still recite them, but my parents came from a system where… Read more »
In grade school and high school, we had to memorize so much. Poetry, Shakespeare, songs, speeches and more. I still remember some of the poems I had to learn and recite in the class. I do not recall so much of the Shakespeare pieces, but it did teach me so much. Now children do not have that requirement any longer which is too bad. So many are not even reading enough and writing enough (here in the USA). Our county library this summer was encouraging parents to read for 8 hours and as a prize they received a coffee mug… Read more »
Margot, to be honest I was thrilled to bits when a boy quoted a piece of poetry in the schoolyard, especially as they were often the less studious, ‘tougher’ boys. I think they were pretty impressed with themselves, especially when it stayed in their head.
Your comment has inspired me to write another post about encouraging kids (and adults) to read. Stay tuned next week.
Oh, that was wonderful. I wish more teachers did things like that – turn detention into a learning experience.
Well, we do our best but these days teachers are overworked with admin IMO.
Awesome story. :)
Thanks, Malvina. :)