okay, so not to be pretentious (because i make fun of my roomie for that all the time) but, today after i completed a fabulous powerpoint on the darker side of wonderland, i realized, that i am a better teacher than my high school senior english teacher. at least, when it comes to alice’s adventures in wonderland. i’m certainly not claiming superiority in aught else. i loved that class and i loved that teacher.
therefore, i also loved the alice unit very much. the whole class chose a character, made a costume and dressed up for a week while we read the story aloud. it was so much fun and i have lovely memories being the cheshire cat (my favorite wonderland character) with my best friend who was the white rabbit. but, in retrospect…what the hell did i learn about the story? about carroll? not. much.
rereading the tale, and teaching it, i am rather divided on the theories behind the story, drugs, sex, satire, whatever it may be. but, we never went into anything like that in my class and though we are reading right now as naught more than a children’s story, i feel it’s a disservice not to go into those details. plus, it’s ridicuously interesting.
though i certainly do not expect my babies to recall that the white rabbit was perhaps based on alice liddell’s father, or that the dodo was perhaps dodgson himself, i do certainly want to teach them to the best of my abilities, and, teach them what they will find interesting so that they do stand a change recalling it some years down the road.
i sound woefully supercilious and i truly don’t mean it that way, i’m just psyched to be able to share something i’m excited about; haha, as if i’m not psyched about all literture… X)
