Mr. Karl says "goodbye" with the help of Tennyson's "Ulysses."
Channel: Benjamin Karl
Date: 2020-04-17

Mr. Karl says "goodbye" with the help of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Ulysses" on today's episode of Mr. Karl's Lit-Cast.

Mr. Karl's Lit-Cast is a literature-inspired podcast aimed primarily at students displaced from their normal educational setting by the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

Each episode asks the kids to look at an excerpt from a different piece of literature, consider it with relation to their experience of the current situation, and then journal about it.

Benjamin Karl is a student teacher from Oakland University and working in the Michigan Public School system. 

These podcasts are intended for educational use.

Transcript:

Hello, everyone. I’m coming to you today to say goodbye. My term as your student teacher has come to an end. It’s hard to imagine, really. I remember when it began, I thought to myself how daunting it was to suddenly be thrust into the classroom with as many 30 students, hour after hour for the next 15 weeks. Could I actually teach you anything? Would you respect me? Would you get my jokes? Well, not everyone got them, but I’ve noticed some you did enjoy them even if you sometimes tried to hide it. I’ve been looking over your feedback and I can’t say thank you enough for your comments, including the critical ones. Incidentally, I agree; it was a lot of homework. I know because I had to grade it *laughs*

I’m proud of the work that we did together. Proud to see how each of you grew over those last three months.  I tried to give as much useful feedback as I could, and I’ve been so  happy to see many of you taking it to heart, improving your writing and your analysis with each new submission. On a more personal note, I’m so touched by the generosity of spirit and joy that many of you have shared with me. You’ve helped me to create relationships and memories that I will always cherish. I think you know who are; even if I had to create new seating arrangements to separate a few of you, or if you stuck around after class so long that I missed my lunch, or if we’ve had more than one conversation that was, perhaps, contentious.

Your 2019-2020 school year isn’t ending quite the way any of you had pictured or hoped, I know. Both for my sophomores and perhaps especially for my seniors, the coronavirus has led to the cancellation of many traditional rights of passage including prom, and graduation ceremonies, and tearful goodbyes in the embrace of friends and loved ones with whom you’ve worked and played these past years. Classmates and teammates with whom you’ve collaborated on projects, fought for great victories, and undoubtedly commiserated over unexpected defeats. 

The journey is all, my friends, and your journeys are really just beginning. Though this chapter was not entirely what you expected, it is your chapter. Your story to tell those who come after you. These the threads that only begin to make up the tapestry of each your own lives and when you look back, you will see who that you became not because of it, but because of how you chose to make it yours: to endure, to overcome, to take what lessons you can from it to make it a part of you.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses. In it, the title character whom some of you may know as Odysseus looks about him, having completed his grand journey and won everything he thought he wanted. He realizes, however, that it was the journey itself, his trials and tribulations, his hardships and unexpected losses, and the comrades with whom he’d shared those experiences that made him who he was, not the tokens of victory—not crossing the threshold home. 

[reads]

Find your port, all of you. Watch your sails puff in the winds of fate, but know that it is you who choses how you navigate those seas. Life is challenge and in that challenge, is where you will find life.

Stay strong, stay healthy, and stay creative.

This is Mr. Karl, signing off.