John Donne

There was another episode of pop music gone awry today. I did a random homework check on the Year 9s and Sumedha’s notebook was fantastic. “Very good!” I told her and she went back to work. Both Sumedha and Ayush were busily doing math problems when she suddenly blurted out:

“Hey, Ayush, how does the Discovery Channel song go?”

Ayush, who is getting a 7E in mathematics, started gyrating his shoulders and singing:

You and me, baby, we’re nuthin’ but mammals
So let’s do it like they do on
the Discovery Channel

“AYUSH, STOP!” I yelled. Excuse me, I know I’m old-fashioned, but am I the
last person on Earth who thinks this is inappropriate in a math
classroom?

Today the Year 12s had a test in complex numbers. The test
was only 70 minutes, but scheduled into an 85 minute lesson, so they had fifteen
minutes to relax before the test. I always advise them to meditate, but
most of them madly cram formulas into their overstuffed brains.

Tim is different, though. He was looking at a poem on the wall, Death Be Not
Proud, and he asked, “Who wrote this poem?”

“John Donne.”

“Who??” he asked.

“John Donne.”

“Who’s that?”

“WHAT??” I screamed at him. “You don’t know who John Donne is?? What do they teach you in English class???”

“Uhhhh, Seamus Heaney. I only know two poets!” Tim laughed.

“John Donne was a English major poet,” I informed him. “Shall we read a little erotic poetry from the 16th Century before the math test?”

“Sure, why not?”

I tried to read To His Mistress Going to Bed but it didn’t go over too well. The room was full of too many nervous bees frantically trying to memorize the position of 1 - i on the Argand diagram.

Tim has the right idea: poetry is the best possible way to spend the few minutes before the math test; it’s like eating your favorite meal before the execution: you might as well enjoy it.

Later Tim told me, “thanks for the math test; I really enjoyed it!” I wish more students realized that school is a place where you should learn to enjoy mathematics and poetry, not fret about grades and university admissions. Ironically, it’s students like Tim who usually get the best grades, and they are certainly the students that the best universities want.