Monday, August 28, 2006

Thespian Notes:AKA The day I get to talk about the origin of Lesbian

Quick Note: I have been accused of not blogging enough. Sadly, I was accused by a LURKER. What is a lurker, you ask? It is someone who reads without commenting. Every blogger has an issue with this. They actually commission "DeLurker Days", hoping for comments or even just a "hello!"

School started last week. Good times. I have six classes with a grand total of 118 students. They seem smiley and eager to participate. A couple seem like wastes of good desk space, but it is early. I am sure there are more :)

I have a fairly diverse group of students, at least diverse for the district I am in. In each class, there is at least ONE student who is either Asian, Black, or Multi. Literally, this is what my class lists state under "ethnicity" of the student. I have yet to determine what multi may mean. What would TJ be listed as? I'd like to see the multiple choice options on the "Student Information" sheet that they use for this.
a. White
b. Asian
c. Multi
d. Black
e. Bitter
f. Downtrodden
g. Able to Pass as White

Today we talked about the history and evolution of Theatre. In early Greek Theatre there was a competition and one of the plays IN the competition was a Satyr Play. Struggling to describe gently the idea that characters dressed as half goat/half man beasts with extra large male genitalia and then ran around poking each other with it, because how can you explain this to a group of 15 year olds without being BLUNT, I started with it being a shorter play that was just a "break from the sadness of the tragedies." One astute lad said, "It is like the halftime show!"

small pause

By Zeus, it is! And I was able to say, "Actually, you are absolutely right! And the halftime show with Justin Timberlake and seeing Janet Jackson's BOOB is the best comparison!" Did I fail at being gentle?

Thespis was an early playwright, and now we have Thespians, people who follow Thespis. Lesbos was an island; those who lived there were Lesbians. They also were mostly women poets following Sappho, also a woman poet. Many of the poems did not paint men in the nicest light. Lesbos housed Sappho and her quorom of angry female writers...now we have Lesbians. Why do I teach this? Because simply saying "Thespian" makes 15 year olds giggle. So I set them straight. I pretend I am not ashamed of teaching this and "sure go tell your parents. I don't care!" But then I hurridly erase the word "Lesbian" off the board. Scary word...lesbian. Actually, the word isn't scary. But the crazy ultra-religious fools are scary. And I like to eat.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So I feel as though I should come out of the closet...I lurk! I love your blog! The way you word things is hysterical. Cracks me up!! And your English lesson today is priceless.