Teaching is a strange thing and it is hard to define what
makes things stick in a student’s head when other ideas leave the brain as
quickly as someone drinking Sambuca shots - or the even faster way that vomit
leaves the body after drinking all of those Sambuca shots. What do we do with those ideas that really
stick?
You can always guarantee that there is one student who tries
to crowbar something you taught them once into everything they study. There are
students who will direct every lesson discussion to oxymorons or relate
everything studied to pathetic fallacy. It is like they cannot let go of that
idea. You might be debating Brexit and still the student would pipe up and
describe the Brexit as an oxymoron and cite that the change in weather is
clearly pathetic fallacy suggesting out changeable nature.
It just so happened that I had one student who obsessed on
an idea I had taught them. But, the idea carried on into every single text we
taught at GCSE with quite a lot of success. She had developed an interpretation
to all of the texts using this idea.
So, what was the seed? Well, the seed was the stiff upper
lip. As a class, we were exploring Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’ and I was exploring
how the way soldiers were supposed to be stoic and not let events affect them emotionally
and mentally. We were discussing the title and how it referred to the soldier’s
exposure to the elements, but also the exposing of the reality of fighting in
war, revealing what is behind the stiff upper lip. We explored as a class how
the stiff upper lip has ingrained itself in our culture and how we compare with
other countries. This in turn led to a discussion of Facebook and how we are
more open to spill our emotions and feelings to others and how this contrasts
to the Victorian attitude that was still ingrained in the soldiers fighting in
WW1. We ended the lesson by exploring the significance of the war poets: they
weren’t just attacking war, but attacking how society approaches dealing with
things. They challenged and attacked the lies.
The lesson ended and so had, I thought, the idea. Then, we
started to look at ‘A Christmas Carol’ and within the first lesson a student
made a link to Scrooge and the stiff upper lip. She made the point that the
imagery associated with Scrooge embodies the Victorian attitude to emotion: hard,
sharp, closed and cold. The ‘solitary as an oyster’ got some battering by the
symbolism bus too. The oyster’s shells are like the lips of the Victorian
person: closed and hard to open. The student then went on to explore the
significance of the ending. The cold Scrooge thaws and becomes a warmer,
emotional character man. He transforms from businessman to friend. Work
represents the place where we see the stiff upper lip regularly. The work and
the money is more important than feelings and emotions. That’s why Dickens
juxtaposes Scrooge’s business with the home of the Cratchits. Scrooge highlights
what happens when we are stoical all the time. It isolates us. It makes us
miserable. In fact, the whole story is about making Scrooge’s lips do
something.
We love a connection in English and this connection of ideas
between ‘Exposure’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ was incredibly fruitful. But, we
didn’t stop there. The student would pipe up during the teaching of these
texts:
The Charge of the Light Brigade - typifies the stiff upper lip
Remains – the damaging effect of the stiff upper lip on us
and how it is still a way of thinking today
War Photographer – how we struggle to feel emotions for others
because of our obsession on our own lives
Poppies – how it is more acceptable for a woman to express
emotion
Kamikaze – how stoicism is part of other cultures
Bayonet Charge - how
we aren’t certain what to think and feel because we just follow orders or the
common majority
London – the blind acceptance of a way of thinking
Ozymandias – how the ability to empathise and connect with
people caused self-destruction
My Last Duchess – the fear of looking bad and presenting
positive outlook on something bad
But, it wouldn’t stop there. When reading ‘Rosabel’ paper,
the student would highlight how Rosabel’s behaviour at the start of the extract
reflects her following the stiff upper lip attitude. Her journey on the bus
with people reflects the common mind-set of the population. KBO. Yet, her
desire to throw the hat at the red-haired woman is about her stiff upper lip
wobbling. Her emotions are coming to the surface. She can’t repress what she is
feeling any more.
We’d then got to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and then there it was
again. The way the young people behave in the play reflect that the stiff upper
lip is something that is learnt and we are conditioned to think that way. The
young people are so spontaneous and forthcoming with their emotions – they gush
over everything. This compares to the adults who tend to be a bit measured with
their emotion. In fact, Lady Montague is so British she dies off stage. Talk
about stiff upper lip. Every part of her body becomes stiff and she politely
does it off stage. She doesn’t show emotion. Lady Capulet is another example of
this. The men are slightly more different, suggesting that men could show
emotion but women couldn’t.
Finally, we got on to ‘An Inspector Calls’. A play which is
a whole metaphor for the stiff upper lip. It is telling that the play is set in
the dining room. A place that is private and not visible. They can show their
secrets, lies, true feelings and thoughts in that room, but they cannot show
them outside the house. They must put on a façade that everything is good –
great – superb. They must show a stiff upper lip and present a façade to the
rest of the world. It is interesting to note that the most emotional characters
in the play are Eric and Shelia. Two of the youngest characters. In fact, Eric
is struggling to keep the façade up he is resorting to alcohol (Remains). A connection with ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Young
people struggle to be stoical, suggesting age and experience teaches people to control
emotions, yet this is seen as a negative in the texts.
Through serendipity we discovered a thread through the
majority of texts and, more interestingly, we had a readymade interpretation of
the texts. Yes, there is a danger of a student crowbarring the idea in every
text, but this made quite an interesting starting point when discussing ideas
about the text. There are obvious themes across the GCSE texts we study, but
what are the concepts that would help lift up their understanding of the texts.
Some are obvious like ‘The American Dream’ for American texts but maybe there
are some that we are not so clear and explicit when teaching a text. The stiff
upper lip was just something I thought that would be a one lesson idea.
However, it spiralled and thanks to a plucky student it kept coming back. It
makes me think what concepts that aren’t so obvious that would help a student’s
understanding of a text.
I give it 5 minutes before the student mentions the stiff
upper lip in a Year 11 lesson this week.
Thanks for reading,
Xris
