To teach literature is to become a conveyor of ideas, imaginations, and spirit. It is a noble if sometimes- thankless undertaking. For it can be pain in the neck- to go on day by day while hoping that you make a mark on at least few of the seemingly vapid faces before you.
In these days of trendy texting an widely use of different networking site to reach other people, the sense of pointlessness is written even larger, and the English teacher turns into English- patient-a-victim of small wars of communication and liberation, from all those modern instruments that only pre-empt attention and focus, let alone the proper application of grammar and correct spelling.
I recall my first time as a teacher of Literature, that was fifteen years ago to be exact. I readied myself for the lesson by reading and memorizing some of the lines from a poem by myself loudly against the provoking feeling of slumber. I believed then that first impressions last, so my day-to-day lesson should be at my best performance while also serving considerable substance., otherwise my students will remember it for the rest of their lives as how I remembered my high school teacher then.
That substance had to be fresh, I told myself. If I had to sing in front of the class , I will do it, if only to catch everyone’s attention and hold it in my grip. Fresh elements had to be introduced even while opening the fundamentals, in the case of poetry, or the traditional; forms that are features of verification or prosody.
How can one explain the use of iambic pentameter, for instance, without having to go through the deep terms that are the technical backbone of the craft of poetry- such as iambic, trochee, the anapest and the dactyl?
Now, all these may seem too mysterious indeed. In reality they make up technical terminology that can be learned rather easily. Knowledge of these technical terms would then help in the appreciation of poetry.
Teaching literature is deep. One should know the background or the origin of the piece for it somehow affects the piece itself. Literature touches, influences, understands lives in its meaningful mean. Otherwise, students may not appreciate its real existence.
By: Ms. Renila L. Cornejo | Teacher III | Mariveles National High School – Poblacion
