Teaching, Living, and Learning: The Black Arrow (Book V, Ch. 4, "The Sack of Shoreby")

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Black Arrow (Book V, Ch. 4, "The Sack of Shoreby")

In spite of Stevenson’s detailed and gory description of the battle scenes (very realistic descriptions, it would seem), I am thoroughly enjoying this part of the book. He is truly a master writer and storyteller. WIth his polished use of imagery, he brings me right into the heart of the story, but his development of characters is even more amazing. Now, nearing the end of the story, the protagonist, Dick Shelton, has had a major epiphany about the monstrous nature of war. He has seen the tragic effects of his theft of Captain Alblaster’s ship, and thus he has caught a glimpse of how hideous war can be.

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I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett