Monday, April 6, 2009

Welcome back after Spring Break! I hope everyone had a good experience and stayed safe. Seven weeks to go for the seniors. . .nine for the sophys. . .

I had a tremendously good time in Germany and really wish I could stay there. The mountains were breathtaking and the people were so nice, and I am very proud of how well my ten travelers comported themselves throughout the trip. Jet lag is killing me a teeny bit, but I am back and am ready to get you ready for the challenges of the fourth quarter.

Upcoming Events:

Some of you are going to the Invisible Children rally on Thursday morning. Please let me know if you are missing my class for this event. My classes will not be participating due to time restrictions.

The annual Boone Art Festival is Friday from second to fifth periods; please respectfully stop by and check out the accomplishments of your colleagues. Some of your classmates will be performing at lunch!

I might be out Wednesday for the final time this year; I'll know later today. If so, please conduct yourselves accordingly and be nice to the sub. It's just a timed writing for the APees and a short activity for the sophys so my presence shouldn't be missed.

Okay, then!

Gifted English II: Bring Elements of Style tomorrow, and for goodness sake if you haven't read Things Fall Apart get off your booty and do so. Final deadline for the ENTIRE NOVEL is April 16. Yup.

Today in class: Analysis of the Rudyard Kipling poem "White Man's Burden" with respect to the novel, and theme discussion for the first section of the novel: father figures, physiognomy, Ekweft and Ezinma, manipulation of language, the imperial mandate. See the end of this post if you lost your copy of the poem.

AP Literature: Heart of Darkness character chart and discussion of pages 1-9. (It doesn't sound like a lot of material, but it is.) See me if you need another quote packet.

White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!