Today in class a student confessed to her wayward behavior in middle school... how when she had to turn in an assignment to a teacher who she was certain didn't actually
read assignments she'd just make up random crap and write down
anything to make it "look" like she'd done the work. It reminded me of a prof I once had who did a similar thing in his younger years only he'd use the pledge of allegiance or patriotic song lyrics as his "filler".... He was sure he'd gotten away with it until the end of the term when his teacher commented on how he'd never had a student with as much patriotism... That really cracked me up. I told the kids this story and then proceeded to get several patriotic songs stuck in my head... "You're a grand old flag, you're a high-flying flag and forever in peace may you wave..." or "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the air, on land and sea..." Why do I know the
se songs and still remember all the lyrics? Because they were the songs we sang in elementary school music. In a sense they were the
hymns of public school. Well my very favorite of the "patriotic" sort of song was and is "This Land is Your Land" which I proceeded to sing off-key for the edification of my students, commenting that it was a Woody Guthrie song. Only to have a girl ask, " Who's he?" Well, God bless the Internet because we
looked him up and then I proceeded to ta
lk about his son Arlo Guthrie who performed at Woodstock and his granddaughter who I recently heard on
NPR. Then we found her website and found a picture of Arlo and decided Arlo and his daughter
Sarah Lee look a lot alike and that both of them look more like Arlo's mother than Woody. Digressions can be interesting and informative... sure she was meant to be working on her research paper, but I think in the end it was worth it... Now she has heard of "Woody Guthrie!" Tomorrow I'll bring in that neat little
picture book I have of the song lyric complete with paintings by Kathy Jakobsen and a sort of biography of Woody in the pictures.
anything to make it "look" like she'd done the work. It reminded me of a prof I once had who did a similar thing in his younger years only he'd use the pledge of allegiance or patriotic song lyrics as his "filler".... He was sure he'd gotten away with it until the end of the term when his teacher commented on how he'd never had a student with as much patriotism... That really cracked me up. I told the kids this story and then proceeded to get several patriotic songs stuck in my head... "You're a grand old flag, you're a high-flying flag and forever in peace may you wave..." or "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the air, on land and sea..." Why do I know the
se songs and still remember all the lyrics? Because they were the songs we sang in elementary school music. In a sense they were the hymns of public school. Well my very favorite of the "patriotic" sort of song was and is "This Land is Your Land" which I proceeded to sing off-key for the edification of my students, commenting that it was a Woody Guthrie song. Only to have a girl ask, " Who's he?" Well, God bless the Internet because we looked him up and then I proceeded to ta
lk about his son Arlo Guthrie who performed at Woodstock and his granddaughter who I recently heard on NPR. Then we found her website and found a picture of Arlo and decided Arlo and his daughter Sarah Lee look a lot alike and that both of them look more like Arlo's mother than Woody. Digressions can be interesting and informative... sure she was meant to be working on her research paper, but I think in the end it was worth it... Now she has heard of "Woody Guthrie!" Tomorrow I'll bring in that neat little picture book I have of the song lyric complete with paintings by Kathy Jakobsen and a sort of biography of Woody in the pictures.
2 comments:
My brother has a cool live recording of Bob Dylan reading out a poem dedicated to Woody Guthrie. I'll try and get it for you.
I'd love it thanks!
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