We’re reading Homer’s Odyssey. I’m making them chart the text, so we’re really reading it. They love it.
Okay, they hate it with the passion of a thousand fiery sons, but they hate specific, concrete details about it, which is how I know they understand what it is they despise.
Today, we read the parts where Odysseus disregards Circe’s advice and arms himself to fight Scylla, the tentacled, hydra-like monster thing. Also the part where the remaining crew disregard the instructions not to eat the cattle of the sun god Helios.
Student 1: So is the main point of the Odyssey that if you don’t follow directions, a sea monster will eat you and your friends?
Me: Or Zeus will drop a lightning bolt on you. This is the desert, after all. But do you understand why I sometimes have to ask, “Did you read the directions?”
Student 2: You’re just trying to save us from an awkward and supernatural death. I get it now.
