To be or not to be...

I walked into Molly's Senior 1 Advance English classroom as a special guest. I smiled as I saw some of the faces of students that I myself teach for regular Senior 1 Writing class. On their desks was chocolate cake, that the students were quickly finishing eating. They have been studying Shakespeare for a couple of weeks now, and today they were having a small party in honor of his recent birthday.

I introduced myself not as Mark, but as Hamlet. I did not talk about class or school but instead described the problems that I (Hamlet) had been having. My father had recently died, and my uncle married my mother and became the new king. What is worse, I had recently seen a ghost of my father who informed me that he had been murdered by the current king. How would I solve my problems? Who would believe me? Life is so difficult?

After this brief introduction, I broke out into Hamlet's famous soliloquy that starts with the lines "To be or not to be..." After wrapping up the speech, the students gave a boisterous applause. I had a huge grin on my face as I described how and why I had learned this speech.

I told them how this is a speech that I was required to memorize my Senior year of high school, for Mrs. Blake's English class. Molly had given me the idea to come share it with the class, and I agreed to give it a whirl. I had remembered a great portion of the speech from high school, but did have to brush up on a few parts of it.

Looking at this moment, it was a great joy to take something that I had learned when I was their age, and recite it for them to help them get excited about learning. Their faces showed an energy as they listened, even to words that were beyond my vocabulary (and how much more so theirs). But yet it was a fun opportunity that made me smile as a teacher. I am sure that if Mrs. Blake heard this story, she too would smile.