Social Report to A Rant on Education

Reaching out and getting to talk with people about Shakespeare has really been a lot of fun.  There is a kind of euphoria that comes when someone take a comment of yours and runs with it.


It also been fun to see how much people care about what you write in responce to what they have said.  Two amazing people that i have rubbed shoulders with so far are Sylvia Morris and Tue Sorensen as well as KJ.  Two of them have been trough blogs and the other email.


The point is this has been a lot of fun!  The one conversation i'm looking forward to right now is with Tue.  I told him i would be studying Lier and he sent me back some pointers, insights, and movie reviews, most of this has been through email.  I looking forward to writing him about with i learn and think.


Also Sylvia had an amazing post on The Tempest it's been fun to comment on her insight to productions that have been made.


I just reason for this post is to formally report.  I have also had some wonderful conversations with people throughout my ward.  One of my favorite answers to the question "how is school" is to bring up i'm taking a Shakespeare class--Boom!--they instantly want to know more.  One such conversation lead to Arthur writing on my blog and my post in response to his.  But this is just one public example, there have been many more.


It's been interest this Shakespeare class, it's thrown me completely out of my comfort zone, i'm no English major!  I do well with exact formula's and machines that are deterministic and finite.  So while i might fall way short of others, i have definitely grown leaps and bounds in my small book.


One of the greatest blessings of this class is that it is so open.  There is no leveling exam that damns one thoughts and experience to a universal grave.  But i'v been able to learn and explore Shakespeare with out fear of it biting me in the butt on an exam!!  I have spent a lot of time in my blog and others and in the text because i have known my grade has the potential to reflect it, versus prepping for some exam. I think in many ways those who have devised the educational system have taken the city by fire(1)!  In an effort to "increase" education and measure it, they have burn it to the ground, lost it.  Burned everything, it's come around and bit not only them but their society in the butt!  There is so much more to education and this for example has been a really neat project!  I've spent more time with it because there is hope that i will be judged on my experience and not some other course i would have had to ambiguously hunt down.  

So what has been my experience, talking with people about the plays, recording and reporting on my study, talking in groups, tying Shakespeare to my life, following courses of analysis that interest me, and diving into thoughts that interest others, revisiting the books and plays, and taking time to see the plays!  Rap that up into a standardized exam! This has been a great class! I hope to be able to articulate it when time comes!


The pic, a C Round Robin Operating System analysis of it's virtual memory address space in 320 virtual frames of memory.  And it relates to Shakespeare! That is letter B on your ENG232 final exam!

Lose all to keep our oaths!

Love's Labor's Lost

Berowne:
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forsworn,
For charity itself fulfills the law,
And who can sever love from charity?

King:
Saint Cupid, then, and, soldiers, to the field!

Longaville:
Now to plain delaing. Lay these glozes by.
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?

King:
And win them, too...

Here we are again burning the town with fire!  At what price do we keep our goal and our dreams?


The Tempest

Prospero lost in is study:
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but by being so retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in its contrary as great
As my trust was; which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound.

Lost in study Prospero lost his kingdom power and all, his library was dukedom large enough.

Won as towns with Fire

Love's Labor's Lost Act I

So study evermore is overshot.
While it doth study to have what it would,
It doth forget to do the ting it should.
And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
'Tis won as towns with fire--so won, so lost.




Here Shakespeare is using a powerful technique called personification he is giving the abstract idea of studying a body to go hunting and an army to burn and over take a town. This technique gives amplifies the meaning and power of Berowne's argument, that the King and his followers are overdoing their oath to study for three years. It also allows for a timeless application of the truth: to much of a good thing.

For example:
Study can miss it's target? Study is used to reach some aim, some goal, wither it be to speak fluently, to obtain a job, to gain understanding, or to win a girl. Eventually study will obtain it's goal like a hunter it's prey, but if the goal was to have the prey alive, study should have been a trapper. Studies goal, like an army, could be to over take a beautiful city, but in the anxiety and fervor of battle the army burns the town to win it. O it's won, but it's ash!

I, like an army like a tyrant, have pillaged through school. I have ran over every friend, roommate, extra curricular activity, and career fair in the name of study! If it wasn't directly related to school it was burned! To this day some of my friends will say, "Its good to hand out with you before to get buried in your work!" How many times i have set the town ablaze only to realize the goal was reached but with flame. To walk the streets of a dream only to have them smell and look of ash is no dream. Life is about balance and dreams. When we set the dream as the only goal we can loose perspective of what it is we really want, what is really needed.

Take time to smell the roses! Build bridges and then never burn them. Enjoy life on the way to the dream and if needs be change it! What wilt thou have pay the price and take it! BUT NOTE THE PRICE!