Here’s a picture of my Heritage class – or at least most of the class. (Two students were excused for illness and another because their car wouldn’t start.) They are pictured doing what turned out to be a rather fun and I hope beneficial exercise. We were supposed to start Confucius today and I wanted them to read a special introductory essay before coming. So at the top of class, after reading to them for a couple of minutes (I like to read to them from some of my favorite books on the topic of culture- today I read from Daniel Glick’s “Monkey Dancing”) I passed out a sheet of paper with twelve fill-in-the-blank exercises based on today’s reading. They were 12 important statements out of the essay, with at least one word missing. I reached into my wallet and took out a five dollar bill and said that I would give $5 to anyone who could complete one of those statements. (obviously without looking at the actual essay.) Nobody could, but one student actually completed half of one statement and I gave him a dollar for his trouble. After that, I had the class divide themselves into teams of two, invited them to open up their Heritage readers to the essay in question, and then promised a reward to the twosome who was able to complete the whole worksheet first. It was really fun to see them working so hard – trying to fill in the blanks in statements like “The Analects makes a most significant use of the UNSAID” or “A classic is essentially a text that is OPEN- ENDEDD. . . it is a text that KEEPS ON GROWING.” They had to read through the essay quickly yet with painstaking care in order to spot these statements in the text and see what word or words were missing. And if someone had already read the text fairly carefully (as they had been assigned to do) then this exercise was a bit easier than someone reading it for the very first time. Anyway, there’s nothing like a touch of competition to get people fired up and this roomful of students really went after this exercise with a vengeance, and the two young women who finished up the sheet before anyone else each won a dollar plus a small bag of M&Ms and a small package of Sweet Tarts. How about that for fabulous prizes !
It’s strange because I have boasted in this blog about how I pride myself in not grading for attendance or participation because it seems so “high school” to do so. But then I’m doing an exercise like this which on the surface might seem like something out of fifth grade. I guess we’ll know if this was a good idea at the end of the semester when they fill out their class evaluations and start writing comments like “it was really irritating to be treated as though we were still in diapers.” I suppose some might feel that way. My hope is, however, that they’ll be more inclined to say something like “It was nice that he made the course as Tangible as he did.” All I know at this point is that one of the most common complaints about Heritage is its intangibility. And say what you will about fill-in-the-blanks worksheets- but they provide a touch of the tangible.
For me the big payoff was actually in the discussion that followed. We talked about several of the statements such as “A book benefits from the passing of time. Everything can be of benefit to it. Even MISUNDERSTANDINGS may help an author.” We talked about how such a thing can possibly be true. We talked about the opening point of the essay, which is that an original genius like Confucius can be undermined in two different ways – by being Suppressed by the establishment (which is fairly obvious) or by being Exalted / put on a pedestal. (which is much less obvious but every bit as true.) And at the start of class on Wednesday, we’ll talk about how the writings of Confucius can say a lot in what remains UNSAID. As we engaged in our discussion today, I found myself saying a silent “thank you” over and over again- that this time around I am blessed with a group of students who are willing and even eager to talk. . . which makes all of the difference in the world. And it makes it possible for me to walk out of the classroom with actually more spring in my step than I had walking into the classroom. Nothing could be better for a teacher than that.
Of course, the scariest part of the whole semester is coming next- – – the reading of Confucius. I may be able to rattle off most of the operas of Verdi or most of the jersey numbers of the Super Bowl champ Pittsburgh Steelers of 33 years ago, but when it comes to Confucius, I am an embarrassment of ignorance. But like my students, I hope not for too much longer.