The lesson on “Imagine” in my text book led to an idea for
my final quiz. I ran it by Mario and
Ilan to make sure I wasn’t insane. With
a confirmation that it didn’t seem to hard, I plunged into it, really excited
about the idea.
One of my favorite assignments in university was reading the
lyrics to a song as poetry and explaining my interpretation to my class. I really started to love poetry from that
class. And I realized that the reason I
can appreciate good music is mostly based on the lyrics.
So I figured my students might benefit from this assignment
as well. I gave them instructions and
hoped it would go well.
It didn’t.
After five or so people “explained” their songs by saying
things like, “I like it because it makes me feel relax.” And, “This song is about love.” I got a little frustrated. Even when I pointed out lyrics that could
mean something completely different from what they were saying, they refused to
even think about it.
Contributing to my frustration and not helping my mood was
the fact that Chinese people have AWFUL taste in English music. I heard so many Backstreet Boys-esque songs
(and a few Backstreet Boys ones) that I was ready to re-enter junior high or
throw up. They picked songs that were
almost exclusively about…love. But they
couldn’t (or wouldn’t) explain what aspect of love the song was trying to whine
about.
I think my advice from kindergarten teachers was ill-advised.
