ONCE UPON A TIME...NADINE GORDIMER

ONCE UPON A TIME...ALL THIS HAPPENED....
                                    ...AND THE REST WILL STILL HAPPEN
                                                                                                      ...BUT ONLY WHEN YOU ACT

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013...Yet another day at the school...!

I arrived school at 6:45 in the morning. The highway traffic was crazy, as usual.

Greeted the caretakers and chatted with them for a while...After all, they are good people and must be respected. They need recognition too in this education dump...

Another math teacher arrived...We went up the third floor...

I went into my classroom. Turned on the fan. Placed my bags in my part of the room where the kids do not have access...I played the CD...Gregorian Chants...

I turned on my tea pot...cinnamon and cloves today...

I cleaned the floor of the classroom...The caretaker never cleans it the way I want....So I redo it in the mornings. I want the kids to see it...After all, they have to learn to be clean too...and that cleaning is not demeaning... To be clean is GOOD...and they have to learn it.

I realize that the kids look at me confused..."Why he is cleaning...?" and "What kind of music is that...?" They wondered, but never dared to ask...They were confused that a teacher will do these chores...

I lit the candles...six of them and watered my plants...

............

I was ready to have my cup of tea and read my emails... 

It is 7:35 now... and students begin to drop in....

Morning exercises...The National Anthem....The prayer and "thought of the day"...and now the announcements....
The principal.... "I am pleased to announce that Alice Monroe, Canadian short story giant, won the Nobel Prize for Literature."
I wrote on the board; Lives of Women and Girls...
After the announcements...I told the kids whoever reads the book I will give them bonus marks...No one claimed the prize afterwards...
But I was very happy...It was the first time in my LONG teaching career in Canada that they announced such an event on the PA...Usually the announcements are about sports ... and some admin stuff...
I decided to wrote a congratulatory email to the principal...
I met the principal later on in the day and congratulated him in person... I told him that it is unusual and unprecedented....In all the schools that I have been no one bothered about literature...no one bothered.... not even the English department...
The students always thought that I am "weird"...The teachers thought that I do not belong in teaching...and now the principal was surprised that I took the time to congratulate him for his GOOD thing...
I expected good things from the principal because of that...But............................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................It is sad...I left the school in disappointments. I retired...knowing that the admin will continue the "GOOD OLD WAYS"... it is difficult to change things...But that's how it is...

I remembered all this because Nadine Gordimer, another Nobel Laureate in Literature...passed away...

Read the news...

(CNN) -- Nadine Gordimer, the Nobel Prize-winning South African author and anti-apartheid activist, died Sunday [July, 13, 2014], her family said Monday. She was 90.

Gordimer died peacefully in her sleep, according to a statement from her family. She 

was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.

Her literary works, including "A Guest of Honour" (1970), the Booker Prize-winning 

"The Conservationist" (1974) and "July's People" (1981) were cited by the Nobel committee as "giving profound insights into the historical process (and) help(ing) to 

shape this process."

I respected her and loved her books... I loved the fact that she did not isolate herself in her books and got involved in the struggle against apartheid....and I will urge ALL to add a book from her on your Summer Reading books...

Educate yourself...Schools will not do it....! They only facilitate it....

***

Indeed, writing is liberating...It allows you to create...to recreate...and above all it allows you to make "sense of life"...

I always attempted to open the minds...of my students...they were reluctant...They said just give us the marks and STFU...But some "got" it...

Read the email that I received yesterday...

Dear … ,
 It has been a while since I last saw you which was the last time I had the chance to visit Pocock. 

How is everything? Are you enjoying Los Angeles? I bet the weather is gorgeous there right on the west coast. It's one the cities I'd like to visit but I haven't had the opportunity. 

I'm working this whole summer, which isn't bad but since I work full-time I haven't had the time to do things such as being able to visit Pocock again, so you are pretty much the last big memory of I have of highschool since the last time I stepped foot there was to see you one more time before you left and started a new chapter in your life.

Although you taught us much more than just mathematics, you made me look forward going to math class after the way you taught us calculus. Even though I haven't had the chance to visit Pocock since your departure, I knew it would be the same afterwards.

My biggest memory from high school is your classroom, and I have yet to come across any other room that's remotely similar to it or has nearly as much culture, history, philosophy of great people, or even the beautiful plant life open for any student who needs the inspiration. I hope Pocock keeps the room the way it is for future generations to see. 

Hopefully I'll get the chance to visit Los Angeles and see you again soon enough - pehaps even with the other APs - once I get the chance.

Take care.

She took part in the fight against apartheid and I respected her for that...

The best literature for my is the leterature that the French call "engagé...", that is literature will social consciousnesses not just stories...

I grew up with Sartre, Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, ....and the rest...wonderful people a universe to soar in and enjoy the inexplicable in us and around us... 

The following are just a sample of her beautiful universe...and the surrounding that she was attempting to make "sense"...

***

  

Read and read and read and read and read...The more your read the more your universe expands and the more you become part of the Global Village of HUMAN BEINGS...

Reading is an experience very unique...It opens up new paths and new universes for you...Reading is an experience that will open up your imagination and you will see parallel universes...and you will be richer for that...and you will be humanized again and again and once more...

 

The world is a Stage...and YOU are requested to ACT.....

***

You may wonder why are the three dots in my blogs and writings...Read the note from Nadine Gordimer which I posted above...I also |learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters"...That is, by YOU and I...

God created the world beautiful and wonderful...Read and read and read...so as you will be able to make the world MORE beautiful and MORE wonderful...

You have the choice... and it is up to you to ACT...

Explore the universe within...And smash the barriers...Liberate yourself and enjoy the freedom of your imagination...

Even within four walls you can set up a universe as distinct as you... Create a liberating "classroom" of your own...and do not forget the plants and the chants...

CREATE A MIRACLE OF OUR OWN...