varying degrees of light

So without shame, I spake: I will be wise, and just, and free, and mild, if in me lies such power, for I grow weary to behold the selfish and the strong still tyrannise without reproach or check. I then controuled my tears, my heart grew calm, and I was meek and bold.

Percy Bysshe Shelley from the dedication to Laon and Cythna.

I wrote this on the board today in my Intermediate English Conversation class--my most advanced class because the unit in the book that we would have covered today was in regards to what we want to do, how we want to be different. My most confident students, the outspoken ones, the ones that have lived abroad, asked me, "Why are we doing this? It's too hard. I can't think through this." and I felt at home, struggling through a passage from literature class. "You wrote spake instead of spoke... and you spelled controlled wrong."

And then we explored what was there: why the quotation begins with so, and what it means to respond; what it means to be just, and mild; what powers lie within our own selves, and when they are revealed; when and why we grow weary; who the selfish and strong are, and what they are tasked to do; that controlling tears means to stop crying and be at peace in conviction. Perhaps this passage was too difficult, but we worked through it as a class and within groups and as a class again, and struggling to understand is not exactly discouraged in a classroom.

And we talked about tyranny, and its many forms, and how we respond to it. How, then, do we respond to goodness and beauty?

Larger themes, sure, than "If I had ______, then I would/could _______ ." but I thought, every once in a while, that I should allow the conversation to wander towards something not incessant and benign. I don't really mean this. My primary argument for putting my students through the a glimpse of the glory that is Mr. Shelley was that I firmly believe good teachers show why they love what they're teaching, and why it's worth toiling through.