The Books I Have Taught series is a personal reflection on the books I have taught in my classes. Their experiences often reveal interesting truths, not about the themes necessarily, but more about the outcomes and interactions I had with my students and the various paths it led me down. I hope you enjoy my reflection on the books that I have taught.
My reason for choosing The Lord of the Flies by William Golding for my year 9/10 class was one that many English teachers can relate to, I didn’t know what novel to do, and it was a resource in the school library. I had heard of it before and I understood it involved surviving on an island, but I didn’t have any other encounters with it (except buy chips from a place in Adelaide called Lord of the Fries, worth checking out). My first read through was a teacher’s read through, that means I didn’t sit down and read it all, but I went online and read the chapter summaries, as teachers are often time poor it is a good way to understand a book for teaching, not so great for enjoying. The reaction from my students during the read were mixed, those who were apt readers seemed to enjoy it but many of the boys who were not readers all reached the same conclusion, if our class was in a Lord of the Flies situation, that they would thrive. It was even the basis for the assessment, an oral presentation on why they would be a good leader in said situation. I was happy that they were engaged, even if I was not convinced they would all survive despite their claims. I also had a unique interaction, one that could only really happen within the classroom, of a particular student becoming very excited to hear me read out page 200 of the book. To be honest, I was glad that he expressed such interest, because otherwise I would have missed that the “N” word was used in the book, so it gave me time to set the correct expectations with my class and make it clear that they could not use the word in class simply because the book has it. The student who was excited was actually one of my brightest and was one of the few who would probably go to university, I mean he would be rejected by most social circles if he continued with his rhetoric, but it would be a good learning experience for him, about acceptable behaviour. It is one thing for your teacher to tell you, it is another to feel the wrath of social rejection. The narrative for me gave creative inspiration, I wrote a whole novella on a group of young school children being stranded and watching their societal norms breakdown. I did make some changes, from an island to a forest and the children were almost adults. I never published it, I gave it to my wife, and she thought it was rather depressing, and I agreed. The ending wasn’t uplifting but it felt more like it was a sigh of relief that it was over. I’m not referring to a lack of quality, though I do feel that it is not currently worth publishing, but just the heaviness of the content. It’s the kind of book that is not enjoyable, not because of, again, lack of quality but because it is a constant flow of terrible events all following where there is no good or bad, just awful. Perhaps that is why I am currently unwilling to polish it and seek publication, I can’t seem to justify the effort. I know that there are successful texts that exist that impact the audience in such a way that they become depressed and are deeply moved but I do not want to create a text that does that. I don’t want people to read my work and never want to read it again. I want my work to be like seeing an old friend, not witnessing a murder.
I am unsure if I would teach The Lord of the Flies again, there is enough depth within to teach and if I had a class that I thought capable then I might, but if I did, I feel like I would revisit the same feeling that led my creativity down a path that I would not like to travel again. Then again, teachers are time poor and if I need to, at least I would know what I am doing.
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