The Hammock Papers: Forever.

04 December 2022

Forever.

In a recent post, Kurt points to an article on a form of mass-murder being committed in classrooms today.

In the movie, Amadeus, there is a spirited dialog that Mozart has with Baron Von Swieten over themes and appropriate content for the masses ...

VON SWIETEN
Mozart, music is not the issue here. No one doubts your talent. It is your judgment of literature that's in question. Even with the politics taken out, this thing would still remain a vulgar farce. Why waste your spirit on such rubbish? Surely you can choose more elevated themes?

MOZART
Elevated? What does that mean? Elevated! The only thing a man should elevate is - oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm stupid. But I am fed up to the teeth with elevated things! Old dead legends! How can we go on forever writing about gods and legends?

VON SWIETEN (aroused)
Because they do. They go on forever - at least what they represent. The eternal in us, not the ephemeral. Opera is here to ennoble us. You and me, just as much as His Majesty.

It's always been happening, the battle continues today, and the good guys are losing, horribly.

Being a sixth-grade teacher, I'm privileged to have a front row seat for some of the most vulgar, rightfully childish, but genuinely funny behavior I've ever witnessed -- I consider it a perk of my position. To return the favor, I'm an evangelist for Mozart, Caravaggio, and Stevenson. Missionary work takes perseverance and patience, key to conversion being experience, which leads to dialog, which leads to exploration, which leads to choice, which leads to understanding and growth.

This is where the battle is being lost. Kids are missing experiences with greatness. I took my sixth-grade class to a school-sponsored book fair recently and was saddened (though not shocked) to see that there wasn't a single volume of classic literature among the offerings. My classroom is thought to be a rarity, an exception, a "nerd clubhouse," even an oddity, sometimes called inappropriate for the age I teach because of the types of literature, music, and art that we explore, discuss, and think about. Students today know nothing about Jim Hawkins, Medusa, and the Jupiter Symphony because not only have their parents missed those boats, but their teachers have as well (see a recent post on the value of real music).

In an effort to devote more time to reading and math, our district has decided to cut the time devoted to science and social studies taught in a year in half -- one semester of science, one semester of social studies. And still, I defy you to find a copy of Kidnapped, The Last of the Mohicans, or The Wind in the Willows on a classroom bookshelf, let alone in the library, er -- excuse me -- Media Center.

Sir Philip Pullman says that the best way to teach kids the value of good literature isn't to drill them with lessons on plot sequence, character types, and conflict, but to leave good literature lying around to be explored, without surveillance, without judgement, without commitment, in hopes that kids will find a lifeline and grab hold. This might be the only hope.

Kids need to be told stories, not by appeasers, but by crusaders who care about their hearts and souls, by those willing to use courage and take the time to read to kids, sing to kids, dance to Mozart with kids; showing the not only The Way, but the purpose and the benefit of The Way.

A scene from Dead Poets Society ...

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.

Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman:

"O me, o life of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities filled with the foolish …

What good amid these, o me, o life?

Answer:
That you are here. That life exists, and identity.
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse ...

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL