BLOGGISH | Learning English by blogging

I want to end this school year with a topic that I have had close to my heart sine the beginning of my career: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. Things do not happen without a reason and I strongly believe in the power of “coincidences”. I’m referring to the recent movie by Spike Lee BlacKkKlansman I watched two days ago.

I’m referring to the new protests by young people led by Greta Thunberg against the Climate Crisis.

I’m referring to the suspension of a high school teacher Rosa Maria Dell’Aria accused of failing to oversee the activity of a group of students who, in a video, compared the government’s migrant and security decree to the Fascist racial laws. You can watch the video and judge by yourselves.

All these apparently unlinked events have made me realise once more how important the role of EDUCATION is, in order to develop CRITICAL THINKING in the new generations. Being able to oppose any form of propaganda, violence and abuse of power, is only possible if you can identify them, if you can tell and distinguish truth from lies, if you know history and literature. Orwell warned us against the dangers of totalitarianism. Therefore today we’re ending our English course with Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” which he delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 28th August 1963. You have the text in your textbook.

Some photos I took in Atlanta (Georgia) at the M.L. King Historical Park

The M.L.King Center in Atlanta
Freedom Road walkway inside Courage to Lead exhibit at Visitor Center.
501 Auburn Avenue

In class we’ve also dealt with the Civil Rights Movement in the Usa. I want to add something to the great figures that have been mentioned and have made the history of democracy and equality.

Rosa Parker who on the 1st December, refused to give up her seat at the front of the coloured section of a bus to a white passenger, thus defying the Jim Crows laws. Bus were desegregated in 1956.

I want to end this post using two quotes by Einstein to reflect upon.

TASK: CHOOSE 1 of the two: What is the best way to protest for our rights? Have you ever fought for an ideal you believe in? What have you learnt today? OR: I Have a DREAM …. continue in prose or stream of consciousness or as a poem. Thanks!!

What does this image of a field of daffodils make you think of? Which feelings does it convey? What is Nature for you?

I’m now going to introduce you to the great romantic poet from the Lake District William Wordsworth. I want to start with a video by BBC FUTURE LEARN ‘William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place’ a free online course by the University of Lancaster What are the qualities that made Wordsworth’s poems rise to prominence?

TASK: take down some notes of the most important ideas that made the PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL BALLADS the Manifesto of British Romanticism.

Interesting is the video on ROMANTICISM – by the School of Life – to introduce the era.

If you wanna visit Wordsworth’s Cumbria and the places that inspired his poetry here’s a beautiful website of photography. And the 10 best photography locations of the Lake District. You can also explore his sister Dorothy’s cottage in the next video.

The next video is the poem Daffodils read by the incredible actor Jeremy Irons whose “liquid” voice is stunning. In my opinion it is just a brilliant, magic and a moving example of poetry reading. As someone commented : “He could read the phone book and make it sound wonderful.” 🙂

While surfing the net I also found a rap version of the same poem, an attempt to make a literary classic … more contemporary so to speak. How do you like it? Does it sound significant or like a parody to your ears? How does it make you feel? ? Be ready to discuss in class orally.

It’s all by now. Hope one day you’ll visit the Lake District as, if you like hiking, it’s an area you should take into consideration 😉