THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Busted for reading Twilight.

I teach at a school that emphasises teaching using classic literature along the lines of Don Quote, Les Miserables, Crime and Punishment, etc. For example this school uses books like Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as textbooks. Time is allotted to every student during the school day to read from the classics. Classics are taken very seriously.

I've read allot of classics. I've also read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I have to downplay this fact for fear of loosing my job like some of my colleagues. Well this morning I got totally busted for reading non-classics literature. In fact my manager asked me point blank if I'd been reading Twilight. Here is how it all went down.

During the assembly this morning Mr. Andrews leaned across the table and said, "Have you been reading Twilight?"
"Yes." I said chagrined.
"I can tell" he said. "You wrote Jacob Black on the list of students to be transferred into choir. Did you mean to put Jacob Grey?"

I nodded. My other co-workers all around me were laughing like crazy. I tried to act somewhat cool. "Oh did I put Jacob Black? I totally meant Grey! I can't believe I did that..."

Acting cool didn't work. I was Busted with a capital "B" Mr. Andrews admitted afterward that he too had been reading Twilight. It could happen to anyone Grey - Black is their really such a difference? Also I never realized this before but my student Jacob Grey and Jacob Black DO have some similarities. They are both Native American, both have shaggy dark hair and dark eyes, lots of confidence, and both are high school students. But that is where the similarities stop. I've seen Jacob Grey do skateboarding tricks to impress girls in the school parking lot but I've never him phase into a werewolf. But now that I've seen the similarities I am going to be on the look out.

2 comments:

Evenstar said...

According to the Readers' Bill of Rights (from Better than Life by Daniel Pennac), you have:
The Right to Not Read
The Right to Skip Pages
The Right to Not Finish a Book
The Right to Re-read
The Right to Read Anything
The Right to Escapism
The Right to Read Anywhere
The Right to Browse
The Right to Read Out Loud
and The Right to Not Defend Your Tastes

So don't worry, you are covered. Also, if your friend caught the Jacob Black reference, what does that say about him? (I only read the first Twilight book and I wouldn't have caught it).

Kris said...

I got caught.... my students are watching a sad sad movie right now, so I thought it was the perfect time to read your blog... at the saddest moment in the movie I realized that Jacob totally does fit! busted up laughing... my students just glared!