Children's Letters to Bob

This being school vacation week here in Massachusetts, and me being a teacher, I am -- of course -- correcting papers.

And I have this one stack that are problematic. They are my students' letters to Bob Dylan.

One of the cardinal sins in journalism is burying your lead. I did the equivalent of that in introducing my kids -- 10, 11, 12 year olds -- to the great Dylan. The first song I played for them was way beyond what they could relate to, and it spoiled the whole thing.

What if I have completely and irrevocably turned my students off to the best poet since Shakespeare?! They will all become business majors or accountants! How can I live with the responsibility?

But that's not the problem of the day.

I often play music for my students. Classical music from Mozart, Dvorak, or Vivaldi during math tests. Revolutionary War or Civil War marches and songs, or "The Battle of New Orleans" during history. (Did you know that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has a really excellent rendition of "The Battle of New Orleans"? Way better than Johnny Horton's or Johnny Cash's.) The Beach Boys when I want them to write a poem about their rooms. Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" when we are studying "characterization" in literature.

So out of all the great Bob Dylan songs, what did I play for them?  Well, never mind about that. Forget it, I'm not telling. It wasn't anything from days like this picture, though, when he was cute and quirky, and the kids liked him, even though they didn't have a clue who he was. (Read and watch Fred Bals' "Dylan Video of the Week: Dylan and the Liverpool Kids" here:  http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976951420 ) 

It was one of his more recent songs, where his voice sounds like it's coming from a cement gravel mixer. It was a lesson plan for disaster, one where you, as teacher, immediately lose control of the class.

The first thing they all did was laugh hysterically.  Which I immediately forbade them to continue doing.

But, you know, I kept talking about Bob and his poetry and songs -- judiciously, of course. No drug or sex references. Nothing their parents could object to. And of course I tried to tell them how important Bob has been to American music. That he truly is a towering figure of influence, and a great poet.

So one day, when I needed a little bit of filler in the daily schedule, I told them to sit down and write a letter to Bob. But I'd buried the lead, and they didn't know what was most important.

Here are a few samples:

 "Dear Bob Dylan,
"I guess you're ok, but I don't really like your voice. People in my class think you're freaky."

"Dear Bob Dylan,
"You absolutely stink. I do not like you at all. You shouldn't be singing."

 "Dear Bob Dylan,
"You sound like there's a dying toad in your throat. My teacher loves you and makes us listen to your songs almost every day. [THAT'S NOT TRUE!!!].  Please have her stop. It's killing us. Thank you, have a nice day."

"Dear Bob Dylan,
"I'm worried about my teacher. Today she mentioned that you are HOT."

"Dear Bob Dylan,
"No offense, but I am not a fan, personally."

"Dear Bob Dylan,
"I am going to give you some advice. Work on your music. Your instruments and voice put together don't really flow. Good luck."

Now, it's vacation week, remember. I have two choices in deciding what to do with these letters. I've already "hmmph'ed!!"  and folded them in half and put them in the garbage. It wasn't meant to be a graded assignment, after all.

But then I pulled them out of the garbage, thinking it might be funny for them to put them in their portfolios -- the collection of their written work for the year:  poems, stories, essays, research reports, and miscellaneous compositions; good, savable stuff that they keep in plastic sheet protectors, with nice color decorations and illustrations, in a three-ring binder -- and happen upon them again in two or ten or twenty years from now, when they realize who Bob Dylan truly is in American history, literature, and music, and remember with a nice little glow their fifth-grade teacher. 

So, which should it be? Throw them out and forget a lesson plan that failed, or have them keep them, and hope that they look back on fifth grade with a sense of charmed enlightenment and affection?