“Old English” - Flash Fiction
I have to teach the Standards, but, the standards are such an imposition. This must be the upteenth time I’ve thought that, but, before this Pandemic, kids were more tight-lipped. Am I terrible for missing the way they used to just stare at me?
Wait, come’on now. You don’t feel that way, not really. Truth is, these kids learned engagement on-screen. I mean, everything seems clearer in HD, with LED. I keep saying to myself that TikTok’s to blame, but that’s insane, because I had a MySpace back in the day. It’s all the same really.
Exactly four kids in class read last night like I asked. Twenty-percent isn’t good enough; it’s not what’s being asked of Me. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make them see our standards of learning aren’t meeting kids’ needs.
Could I just start with that? Snap-snap.
Oh, woops - the kids are staring. I should have planned what I was going to say before tasking their attentions.
“I’d like to know what you all think of Beowulf so far,” I decided on after a few moments’ pause to collect my thoughts.
At least half the class exchanged scrunched-up looks; the other half set their faces into the walls, windows, and tops of their desks.
“I don’t get it,” one kid who’d read said.
“It’s... boring,” said another who hadn’t - but their tone expressed they had sincerely tried.
“Tedium is the worst pain,” I offered. Grendel. If Dark Age heroism doesn’t grip them, maybe John Gardner’s antihero will.
“So why are you making us do this?” demanded a student who was almost always on the edge of having had enough.
I thought carefully before responding. Why was I making them do this? The quick answer is that it’s on the required reading list, but kids don’t/won’t care about that. Besides, I have a degree in English and love reading, and I couldn’t be swayed to like Math at their age, either.
“Wyrd oft nered unfaegne, eorl, ponne his ellen deah,” I answered in a deep, practiced voice.
Giggles. Exchanges. Raised hands. Outburst of, “WHAT?”
Grinning, I rephrased: “If you’ve got the guts, you’re not doomed.”
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@bykaileyann