2023-02-252023-02-25Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic News of the Week

February 24, 2023
Mr. David Gallagher, English Teacher

Here are a few highlights in English classes over the past few weeks.

In fifth grade we are about halfway through Holes, a 1998 young adult mystery comedy novel written by Louis Sachar. The protagonist, Stanley Yelnats, is under a curse that began with his great-great-grandfather and has followed the family since then. Stanley has been sent to a boys’ detention center where the boys build character by spending all day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes, thus the title.

In middle school, we are just finishing up the Rod Serling teleplay, “The Monsters are Due on Maple St,” which was written and performed for the television show “The Twilight Zone,” in 1960. The teleplay shows how easily society can tear itself apart when people are afraid and suspicious of one another. It begins on Main Street, U.S.A. and ends as a paranoid, out-of-control mob.

In high school, our freshman and sophomores just finished writing an argumentative essay about the novel, The Lord of the Flies, written in 1954 by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. Students presented written arguments designed to persuade readers who or what was responsible for the demise of society on the island where a group of young British boys are stranded.

Finally, in British Literature, we are wrapping up 1984, George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, published in 1949. The iconic English novelist and social critic writes about the risks of government overreach, totalitarianism and repression of all persons and behaviors within society.

2023-01-312023-01-31Academics News, Newsletter

Academic Class Spotlight: British Literature

by Mr. David Gallagher, English Teacher

In British Literature class so far this year, we have read two works, Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales.

Beowulf is cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature and is a great way to introduce students to epic poetry. Beowulf is estimated to have been written between 975 and 1025 CE. In class we discussed the definition of a hero or good leader versus that of a monster and related these qualities to contemporary heroes, leader. Even though the culture in Beowulf seems far removed from modern times, the poem explores universal themes that are still relevant today.

Next, we began our study of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which perfectly captures a particular time period. When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, society was no longer divided into lords and peasants; professions were coming into existence and suddenly skilled craftsmen were making enough money to afford a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. As I write this, the class is currently reading “The General Prologue” when Chaucer introduces his twenty-nine pilgrims, describing their ranks in society and also making fun of them in the process. They enjoy reading the descriptions of the medieval professions and Chaucer’s opinions of them.

I enjoy teaching this piece of Medieval Literature because Chaucer understood that who is telling the story matters. In the same way, the stories we choose to tell and how we tell them tells something about us. As a side assignment to reading The Canterbury Tales, I set aside a day in class for my students to think of a place that many different types of people gather such as a supermarket or an airport and to think about, list, and describe the many different types of people who visit that place. Some of my students are very keen observers of human behavior.