June 4, 2004
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The Daily News
1 Friday, and the Seniors' last day.
2 There will be nothing really normal going on today. Oh, I'll go in and teach, but the Seniors are already gone, in their heads. The last thing they are thinking about is whatever their teachers are teaching, I'll tell you that much.
3 The last two weeks of school are weeks of bonding and daydreaming for the Seniors. There best writing is probably going to be in yearbooks, or in xangas. They could go for that essay, but it will be so out of it and irrelevant that most anything written for school will be inferior to yearbook entries, diaries, journals, poems, and songs. All this is going to be done today.
4 Me? Ah, I decided a few weeks ago not to break my own spirit by getting irritated that the kids are out of it. Instead, I taught the plots of five Shakespearean plays in the past two days <okay, that's a bit too fast, but I did it, I tellya!>, theories as to His questionable authorship, theories which I have affectionately dubbed "Shakespiracy Theories", and for the first time in five years, I have brought back Franco Zefferelli's Taming of the Shrew, arguably my favorite movie of all time.
5 So I ain't been trippin'.
6 I had forgotten what a beautiful classic that piece really is. Every second of that film is brilliant. Oh, there are those out there who argue that it's message is sexist and degrading to wimminz, and all the rest, but really, it's just a great film. I was always secretly a personal fan of Kate's last speech, admonishing the Bianca and the widow for beeing peevish. If a relationship is to work, then BOTH parties need to respect one another; THAT I think is the true theme of Shrew.
7 For those who prefer the film in more "today" terms, 10 Things I Hate About You is the same plot, but not even in the same league as Zefferelli's Shrew.
8 Whew. Going off there. But that's where my head is today; the film brings back lots of wonderful memories I have had over the years; I think of classes of yesteryear watching it, and I watching Seniors looking out windows, staring, daydreaming, wondering where it all will lead, but having the music from Taming of the Shrew always as a backdrop. In my classes, this has traditionally been the anthem marking the end and the beginning.
9 And it brings me memories.
10 That's it; and Seniors, just walk through the day strongly. More people understand and love you than you will ever realize.
11 And my classes, let's enjoy Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in perhaps the greatest film of them all!
12 God give you good night.
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