What is your favourite poem from another culture?

[Thethingswedoforlove]

And why? This is to help with dd1 s English homework. Thanks!

[sleepismysuperpower1]

does this count? its been translated from Punjabi. It's my favorite poem because it contains a lot of the things that I love about life and that bring me peace x

[SarahAndQuack]

Ok, not being funny, but ... why should we help you or your DD cheat?

If her homework is 'go on the internet and ask strangers for their favourite poem from another culture,' she should do it. But it's not, is it? She's meant to be finding out about poems from another culture and you thought this would be an easy way for her to avoid having to do her homework.

[Thethingswedoforlove]

That’s really horrible sarah. She has to do the analysis during school time. All we wanted was some suggestions as I thought people might have some lovely poems they were familiar with. I wasn’t asking for the analysis or anything other than suggestions for relevant poems.

Thank you sleep. That is perfect. Translated poems are ideal. Exactly the beautiful sort of poem I hoped someone might suggest.

[Thethingswedoforlove]

And Sarah I am not at all clear why it is cheating. She was asked to bring in a poem from another culture.

[ContadoraExplorer]

Pablo Neruda - Sonnet LXXXI. Ya eres mía...

[Thethingswedoforlove]

Thank you contadora

[SarahAndQuack]

@thethings - no, it isn't really horrible.

I teach English Lit. Helping your daughter cheat isn't in her best interests.

Did her homework say 'ask your mum to ask her friends for a poem'?

Or did it ask her to do the work herself?

[Thethingswedoforlove]

It made me weep contadora

[Thethingswedoforlove]

Happy to be taught why it matters Sarah? Surely the substance is the analysis or the choosing of the poem? If she is presented with a few, why does it matter?

[SarahAndQuack]

Because it is her homework, not yours?

Do you also present her with several possible topics when she's asked to write an essay on a subject of her choosing? Or, when she comes to write a personal statement for university, will you give her a few drafts and ask her to pick?

Unless the homework was to ask your mum for a favourite poem, you are helping her to cheat.

Part of the point will be to see how she sources primary material. Where did she look? What were her criteria for selection? What cultures did she focus on, and which did she not? Etc. I don't know - not being her teacher - whether or not this will be an explicit focus, but I do know it is very unfair to students who may have found this assignment difficult, that she has skipped a step.

[Thethingswedoforlove]

Sarah. As it happens she has already come up with a poem independently since I have been on mn. She was very worried about it. And I didn’t tell her I was asking the question. But I wasn’t aware that the sourcing and choosing was in any way a factor.

I am happy to listen given you are clearly know what you are talking about and not do it again.

But your tone isn’t very friendly.

[SarahAndQuack]

Ah, ok.

I'm sorry my tone wasn't friendly - I honestly thought it was obvious why it was cheating, but I was wrong and I will take care to learn from it for next time. I'm sorry I upset you. And I do totally see why, seeing your daughter worried, you'd want to try to help. I'm sure I'd be the same.

I read your post in a really ungenerous spirit, and it was my fault.

[Thethingswedoforlove]

We’ve both learned something this evening Sarah.
I am unusually sensitive at the moment for other reasons.
Thank you for helping me see a new perspective.

[Pieceofpurplesky]

As an English teacher I would be quite happy for my pupils to ask other people to recommend a poem as they may introduce something new and fresh to the class - rather than all googling and coming up with poems from the old GCSE syllabus.

[SarahAndQuack]

No, but mostly you taught me.

And I'm sorry you're having other issues. Please just ignore me being chippy.

FWIW, where I teach, one of the big issues is about how to teach English Lit without contributing to racism/colonial perspectives. It's such an issue because for centuries people in English-speaking colonies and former colonies were taught Shakespeare and Jane Austen rather than playwrights and poets and novelists who'd lived and worked in those countries. So one of the exercises we do (can't speak for anyone else) is to ask students to talk about literature they love from another culture. And we talk about what it might mean to think of literature as 'belonging' to a culture (eg., does Shakespeare 'belong' to England? What if you are from a country where you studied a lot of Shakespeare - does he seem to 'belong' to you?). And we also talk about what we share and what seems to be common ground.

Anyway, that is where I am coming from. But I was very wrong to take the tone I did, and I am sorry.