all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Friday, September 24, 2004 np: drive-by truckers - "the sands of iwo jima" a lot of the leftist bloggers have been on this since yesterday, but damn if it didn't make me nearly have an anuerism myself driving home listening to NPR. (by the way, did you know that both anuerism and anuerysm are accepted spellings? at least, according to m-w.com.) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday raised the possibility that some areas of Iraq might be excluded from elections scheduled for January if security could not be guaranteed. wow, excellent, rummy. have an election without a sizeable percentage of the country being able to weigh in? that's a novel idea. although i guess he's not really posing anything radical, eh? flordia in 2000, anyone? -- on the sunny side, i had possibly one of the best moments of the school year so far today. my first period class is in the midsts of reading sophocles' oedipus rex. normally, as we are reading the play out loud in class, i will stop every couple of pages and review what's happening, prompting the students to fill in the gaps as i talk. in this class especially i have trouble getting people to participate, though lately one student, tamara*, has been trying extra hard to bring her grade up. she's been paying better attention, doing the homework, doing better on tests and quizzes. we had reached the point in scene 3 of oedipus rex where, during a conversation between oedipus and the corinthian messenger who comes to tell him of king polybus' death, jocasta, oedipus' wife and mother, finally puts two and two together with the information flying around and realizes the incestual quandry in which she is deeply mired. where her character has been quiet for some time, she suddenly begins to beg oedipus to stop asking so many questions and to not worry about his origin so much. without me having to even prompt a pause in the action, tamara (who was playing oedipus), blurts out: "hold up. let's stop. i think jocasta just figured it all out!" a huge smile spread across my face and i said: "yes, why do you think that?" she begins to elaborate, using jocasta's dialogue as proof of her sudden change in demeanor. i don't believe i've been more elated in a student's accomplishment yet this year. it thrilled me to see such a strong, definite and, above all, correct light bulb go off above her head. i'd have to say that today was a good day. * = name altered to protect student's identity and privacy. posted by J. Neas | 9/24/2004 03:04:00 PM
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