[etni] Fw: Fwd: Why I dropped out of the HOTS program
- From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:49:36 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: Doron Narkiss - doron.narkiss@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Why I dropped out of the HOTS program
Dear Phyllis (what a poetic name - means green bough),
I read your letter with sadness. I am not in favor of the HOTS approach when
applied to teaching literature, but I am hugely in favor of teaching lit. in
english classes. My sadness stems from two sources: one, that someone dared
say to you that your poem was not poetry, and the other, a symptom of HOTS
fever, that there is a belief that there is one way of appreciating and
teaching poetry/lit., and that you're doing it wrong.
Let me introduce myself: I have a Ph.D in english lit, and I teach lit. at
Kaye College in Beer Sheva.
First, McGough. I liked your interpretation. It's entirely plausible, but
then, because the author's a man, perhaps the speaker is a man too, and the
father/husband stays in bed. Clearly, one of the parents got up; the other
stayed in bed, and enjoyed him/herself unapologetically. Why pass judgment?
perhaps the next day the other person did the same. What's important is that
the person who stayed in bed - the speaker - enriched us with this image of
harmony, of warm pastures-in-bed, of babies and birdsong, and if you "got"
that, you "got" the poem.
As for poor old Sandburg - you may not like his poem, but what an image!
again, the only reason for teaching this poem is to follow the movement of
the fog - which as you say is so familiar, nothing special - as he turns it
into something special, seeing it as a cat. That is the essence of poetry,
to see and make others see one thing in terms of another. Sandburg doesn't
say where he took the image of cat-as-fog or fog-as-cat from, but it's
probably from an earlier poem, by T.S.Eliot:
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
(from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"). You see how Sandburg caught
the cat image (although the word "cat" doesn't appear in Eliot), and used it
to describe Chicago fog (Eliot is talking about London). Eliot's fog is
dirty and smelly, intrusive and inquisitive. Sandburg took one poet's image
and made it his own, made it different. (There are other fog-related poems,
like the ballad "Foggy, Foggy Dew". How does fog function there? does it
have the same meaning? I digress)
Now take your poem. Rather than an image of beauty, grace or filth, your fog
is a nuisance, a disruption. You view it with suspicion, even fear. It
forced you to change your plans, but you too did the poetic thing: you took
Sandburg's image of a cat, made it your own, and expanded it into your poem.
By doing so you are saying: I too can use language to make people feel, see,
something new. I too am a poet.
Imagine taking these three (or more) fog poems to class and telling your
pupils: write your own cat/fog, bat/wind, frog/rain poems, kids. Have a
ball. Be poets.
I think you have a great, creative lesson plan (don't get mad at Sandburg,
he's helped you. It's not a competition). But those who insist on using HOTS
say, oh no, you can't do that, not you. This is LITERATURE we're talking
about, lady, and we'll have none of your nasty little attempts, thank you
very much. LITERATURE is to be feared, revered and respected. But how can
teachers teach what they are told to fear? How can they possibly make it
approachable for their pupils? Instead of encouraging you to teach lit.,
they say you don't even know what lit. is. (Of course you do: you've been
reading it since you were a child, and writing and teaching it.)
I hope you won't stop teaching lit. in your classes. One of the great joys
in teaching lit. is having a group discuss a work. So many ideas, different
interpretations. Some are wierd, some are wacky, some plain wrong. But
together, out of wierd, wacky, wayward and winning, an interpretation is
built that includes far more than you or I could come up with on our own.
Reading lit. as communal learning: now there's an activity worth doing. We
could call it "Reading Allowed". Let's not squash the fun out of lit. by
piling HOTS on top.
What is this amphibious beast anyhow, neither fish nor fowl, this
literature-HOTS creature? We understand the rationale for its initial
introduction. It's good that we now have course to teach teachers how to
teach lit. (Too bad it isn't taught by literature teachers, but hey, it's a
foggy, foggy world, we shouldn't expect too much.) Now that literature is
entrenched in the curriculum, can you please put HOTS on the back burner?
If you need to take the course, then take it, because it contains all sorts
of rules for how to do portfolios and do away with exams; don't give up
because an administrator told you you don't know what a poem is. Don't wait
for some ministry to issue a poetic license.
Wishing you good luck, good literature and good learning,
(Dr) Doron Narkiss
Dept. of English
Kaye College
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