Start of week 2: Monday class - 7/4

Happy 4th of July!

In England, the 4th of July is not a holiday, so we did have classes.

The morning passed uneventfully, which is good thing. The second week is when, historically, students start to get sick from having pushed themselves too hard in the first week.

My class in the afternoon was a very enjoyable one. Our reading assignment for discussion today was T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land."

Before we discussed the poem, though, we spent about an hour reviewing the highlights of our field trip to Winchester last week. This proved to be a very popular field trip, and the students had a lot of ideas and reactions to discuss. In addition, several questions led us into excellent discussions of some further background on the tales and nature of King Arthur and the ideals associated with them. Since this class meeting's reading centered on the Grail quest material, that's where a lot of our discussion ventured, too.

When at last we turned to the discussion of the poem, the general reaction was one of dislike and non-comprehension of what they had read. I have to admit, this is not one of my preferred poems, nor is it one of my favorite periods in literature. However, we don't have to like something to appreciate it. Further, we don't have to like it to make an effort to try and come to an understanding of it. Once this idea had been presented and explained, the students seemed much more ready to engage with the poem and the material they had read. What followed was a teacher's happiest kind of class - one in which he only needs to steer the discussion, not drive it. This was one of the most animated discussions this class has engaged in. The time flew, and before we were even ready, the end of the class snuck up on us.

After class, I had dinner (a sandwich from the local store) and started grading the written field trip responses I had collected in class.

For me, this was an excellent class day in the Study Abroad program here in London.