Life, love and literature

I taught a class in World Literature for seniors for many years. It was extremely enlightening to look at the literature of so many countries and cultures and to try to understand what inspired them. The Chinese people historically have more poetry than any one else. There are several reasons – they have been writing for a long time. Their public officials were required to write poetry. School children are required to memorize numerous lines of poetry. When we were discussing these factors, I told my students that we were going to put more emphasis on poetry than we sometimes do in America. I told them to buy a hard backed journal they could fill with lines of poetry that they liked. I gave them six weeks to read and collect favorite lines from as many poems as they had time to discover! I required a minimum of 500 lines. I told them I would fill a journal of my own favorites! They could also include lines from poems we studied in each world unit. At the end of the six weeks, we brought our journals to class, and I asked each student to select something to read to the class. I collected the journals and read each one of their selections over the next few days. I had some very positive feedback from this assignment. One of my student’s mothers also taught English; she told me that her son would call her into his room and read some poem to her that he liked or found significant. She said he had never done that. I told them to make that journal an important book in their bookcase…Hopefully they will read the lines again. I still add to the journal I made!