May 15: Thinking of all of you from here in my old stomping grounds. Stay strong and sedulous over there. Believe in yourselves and focus on what you can control. And get your sleep!
Dear Students,
I write this note with a heavy heart, knowing that I won’t be in school to see you become seniors after sharing two years together. My decision to leave stands as one of the most difficult choices I’ve ever had to make and it took several months to finally submit my resignation letter. Ultimately, I decided that the time had come in my life to return to my home, to be closer to my family, to have more security, to begin the second half of my career, to breathe cleaner air and to join the resistance against this horrendous man who occupies the presidency of the United States.
As most of you know, I spent years in Korea, far away from my family and home. And even though it has been exciting, enlightening, educational and formative, it has also meant missing holidays and important family events over a span of years. We never get those moments back and they are fewer in number as the years pass. Moreover, no one grows any younger and the bell is always tolling. So it is time.
With that, I want to tell you that even though I may not be there in person, I am there in spirit. I’ve told your class — the 2000 babies — that you have immense potential and a remarkable capacity for hard work and accomplishment. I don’t know how so many of you do what you do but you earned my respect. And know that your classmates are some pretty damn cool, diverse, eclectic, intelligent, passionate and standard-setting individuals. In a short life, one is fortunate to share part of it with sui generis individuals. Likewise, I feel fortunate to have had the chance to share two years with all of you. And all the moments we shared connect us forever. No one can take those things away and if you decide that it’s important for you to keep certain memories, they stay alive in our souls. A wise old woman once told me that the voice we hear inside us (some call this our conscience) is all of the voices of all the people we learned from in our lives. I believe that.
I also believe that at this point you have the tools to succeed, that you’ve learned many of the most important life lessons already, that you know what you have to do, that you — each and every one of you — have endless potential to achieve what you are willing to work towards, with diligence, passion, focus, fortitude and dedication. You knew a long time ago it wouldn’t be easy. Nelson Mandela once said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.” So as you start up the trail toward the last summit of your high school years, having already climbed the great hill of getting into HAFS, having survived your first tempestuous year and your second suffocating year, begin climbing that next great hill but, this time, with firmer steps, more survival tools and the sense that it is more about the journey than the destination, that it is the steps along the way — and the falls (the errors) — that collectively propel you forward. And know that somewhere just out of sight, I’ll be watching you proceed, wishing you well, sometimes giving you a hard time about staying organized, about doing your job, about sleeping enough, about not making excuses, but, mostly, about doing what you are perfectly capable of doing when you focus your mind and keep going.
Take care and stay in touch.
Your teacher always,
Mr. Rodgers
HAFS British Literature for International Program 2017
Instructor: John M. Rodgers
Office Hours: open and by appointment
Office: P407 International Affairs
Email: jmrseoul@gmail.com
Greetings, students. Please keep a link to this page handy or bookmark it. I will post information here as the year unfolds.
Assignments (I will update this section as needed)
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December 16: Greetings, students. A note on the puzzle: when you deduce the answer “mortality,” you are right. As I’ve been wrestling with increasing signs of spinning moral compasses both near and far, I can only conclude that I made a Freudian slip and omitted the t. Additionally, for most of you, this is your eighth HAFS exam period so do what works and ditch what doesn’t.
December 13: Here’s the proper Enlightenment PPT. HT to WS Jo. Also, you do not have to know specifics of the French Revolution or Romantic Period. You should familiarize yourself with the Enlightenment and the Victorian Era. Remember the importance of a sleep-rise routine that aligns with the exam period and provides you with the essential rest to store and consolidate memory. Take care of your health first. Studying is second. For real.
December 9: Hello, Students. Here is the Victorian Era and Dickens PPT for exam prep. Stay warm and rested during this chilly time when seasonal ailments will start circulating. Researchers report that cutting sleep weakens the immune system; and sleep-deprived mice died from illnesses in earlier studies.
December 4: Hello, Students. Surprisingly quiet Monday on campus today as the nervous applicants sit interviews. Don’t forget how you got here. Last week a student asked, “Who is the Dalai Lama?” after I mentioned him in class. I briefly explained that he is a Buddhist monk who fled Tibet during the 1959 Tibetan Uprising and ended up in India. Anyway, he just published some necessary reading that contains threads we all can identify after our year together. A giant standing on the shoulders of giants.
November 6: For class 2–2, you should have your intros done today and then get them reviewed before tomorrow. Simply, there’s no way to get an intro peer reviewed if it’s not done. I thought this was self-evident.
November 5: Hello, Students. Some thoughts after finishing reading outlines: First, you cannot use the sources I used in class to connect to the modern world (e.g., Brooks, Kim and the HBR); I don’t recommend mixing modern references in the paragraphs where you analyze the literary works; pay attention to formatting details like titles, using — (a dash) and not -(a hyphen) and citing properly; it’s smart to have the modern section point back to your earlier analysis of works rather than using excerpts again and re-explaining; beware of using too many excerpts in individual paragraphs as it will seem crowded.
October 27: I am announcing our Life and Literature essay assignment today. You can view and print the explanatory document here. I’ll take any questions via email or in-person next week. (Someone alerted me to G-doc problem, which I’ve tried to fix; there was apparently a “code push” that caused the issue with docs).
Anyone curious about the question of whether Adolf Hitler was “wise” or not (it came up in 2–2 class discussion — an apt question) might find this review of a careful, recent biography relevant and informative.
Exam time again, students — your seventh here at HAFS. Harness those techniques that you have identified as leading to success; eliminate the others. Remember those proven tactics of using different study locations to create stimuli for better recall, and to get your rest. Also, remember to stay physically active, whether it’s several walks during the day, jumping rope or hitting the gym. More and more research is showing that physical activity also benefits the brain.
- Here is the second PPT.
- Here is the PPT for midterm prep.
- I meant to post this information a few weeks ago for people thinking about their future and jobs in the future (yes, I know, it’s tangential). And this.
September 18: The “Trump, Taxes and Citizenship” article. All students must read this by Friday, September 22.
September 15: As we are currently having discussions about Meditation XVII and Spencer Kim’s op-ed, we have run into some definitional musings. Here are authoritative definitions for terms from the OED:
August 23: Due to SAT, internships, travel, etc., I have decided that essays will be due at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29. You need to attach the graded version to the back of the edited version.
July 29: Summer greetings from salubrious New Hampshire, Students. A brief note about those literary analysis papers: Work will be due during our second class — in printed, corporeal form — so do not send me any emails with attached documents (questions are okay). And do not lose/misplace the graded drafts because you will have to turn them in with the new version in August. Stay cool and take care.
July 11: Get your rest tonight and every night this week. Here’s what professional athletes say about the importance of sleep. Prepare to perform professionally with rest!
July 10: Just to clarify, there is no court “imagery” in “Sonnet XXX”; it is legal jargon/legalese. And number 12 across in puzzle 2 is Italiancity-states; yes, 6 down is antimetabole.
More on smart studying: vary location and methods to improve storing and recall of information. This is the easy video version with some slightly strange cartoons.
And more on sleep, learning and memory from Harvard.
And further evidence of how mind-blowing our evolutionary tool is.
Here is the full Renaissance PPT for the exam. Shout-out to the World Scholar for asking despite trepidation.
June 26: All students are responsible for Sonnets XXVII & XXVIII.
June 20: Here is the Middle Ages & Canterbury Tales PPT.
June 11: Class 2–2 should bring introduction and body 1 to class on Monday. Class 2–1 should do the same on Tuesday. We will do peer reviews. Of course, I expect you have made more progress than that but time limits what we can do in class.
Here is a full model essay for perusal.
June 6: Class 2–1 — Outlines are due by the end of the day (6 p.m.) on 6/7. You should’ve already thought about how you’re going to generally analyze the work since you did the brainstorming.
Literary Analysis Essay is due June 14 at 2 p.m. Guidelines here on layout from the first grade comp. class Google Doc.
Here’s an example of a model literary analysis introduction.
Students, we are missing a bunch of classes and some people have been and will be missing classes for various reasons. This presents a major challenge for progress and any sense of consistency. Make sure you are all staying current with coursework and rereading the text before classes. Also, just because we miss a class it does not mean you have some get-out-of-work-free card. I’m now going to start posting what material I consider you responsible for at present.
As of May 31 (end of May already!): Up to line 746.
As of May 26: The Prologue, The Knight, The Wife of Bath, The Miller, The Summoner and the Pardoner.
As of May 18: The Prologue, The Knight, The Wife of Bath and The Miller.
Here’s the link to the ME reading of The Prologue.
And if anyone has interest in Law and Politics and Intrigue, here’s a cerebral look at the Trump Train Wreck in action. How would Chaucer typify Trump?
The Canterbury Tales and the Middle Ages
Harvard’s entire collection of interlinear translated Tales, which our content comes from.
Benjamin Bagby reading the Battle with Grendel section in OE.
Anglo-Saxon Period and Beowulf PPT
Remember that our exam will be held during the first period on the first day of the exam, April 18. Study smart! And remember the importance of sleep!
Beowulf!
Useful supplementary information about Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon period:
For those curious about the Geats (aka Yeats) and the Beowulf timeline.
Cain and Abel refresher (if needed) from Genesis 4:1–17, King James version: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cain.html#genesis
Full text of Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (2000) http://bit.ly/1EWKcEu
Timeline for the Beowulf story/script: http://www.rhetcomp.gsu.edu/~jlawrence/Documents/English%202120/Beowulf%20Timeline.pdf
Heaney reading “Battle with Grendel” section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3hQTugGqCM
Audio of entire first half of Beowulf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaB0trCztM0
British Library information about the only existing Beowulf manuscript.
