In This Issue From the Deputy Principal (Curriculum)

WHERE HER SPIRIT GROWS TALL

A WENONA COMMUNITY JOURNAL PROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Volume 1, No 2,
December, 2007

In This Issue From the Deputy Principal (Curriculum)

From the Deputy Principal Michelle Nemec
(Curriculum)
Michelle Nemec OUR SECOND EDITION OF DIMENSIONS
With this our second edition of Dimensions we are continuing the direction taken in
Editorial the first edition. Our feature article in this issue comes from a parent and published
David English author, Mrs Jeni Mawter, who writes creative texts for children. It is a measure of
the diversity of the Wenona community that we are able to share and enjoy such
Critical Thinking, rich talents. Virginia Howard, Executive Director of the Wenona Foundation, reflects
Creativity and Humorous on her role as an educator and fund-raiser, and our Writer-in-Residence and
Texts English teacher Mr Jim Provencher shares a talk he gave at the New South Wales
Jeni Mawter Writer’s Centre on the Russo-American author Joseph Brodsky. Our reports on
recent staff development include an item from Mr David Browne, Head of the Junior
A Reflection on Being an School, on his leadership workshop at Harvard, as well as an interesting selection of
Educator and Fund-raiser other courses attended by staff.
at Wenona
Virginia Howard I would also like to take this opportunity to farewell the Wenona community, and to
pay particular tribute to the manifest capacity for innovation and change in our
Brodsky in America: school and its families, evidenced this year in so many ways, but most obviously for
Lecture at the New South me in the kind of curiosity and openness to new ideas that we have seen in the
Wales Writers’ Centre pages of Dimensions this year.
Jim Provencher
Editorial – Recognising Many Roles and
Recent Staff Development Talents
Reports from staff
attending conferences and By David English, Editor of DIMENSIONS
workshops
A theme emerging in the items we are offering in this edition is other talents. All
Image sourced from Trend too often we base our sense of others, indeed our sense of ourselves, on our
Enterprises official public role – parent, teacher of Science or English, student, child, adult. The
There is a LINK here reality is that everybody has a depth of talent in specific areas that often seem too
http://www.trendenterprise idiosyncratic to consider sharing with others. Of course it is when we see those
s.com talents and interests as they manifest themselves in other people that we realise
how strong and interesting all of our fellow human beings can be.

It is sadly often the case that the pressure and almost scripted expectations of their
respective roles – teacher and student – prevents either party from seeing the
complexity and diversity in the other. All young people have sets of interests that
they pursue with extreme seriousness and care. All adults, not just teachers, would
do well to remember how they felt and understood the world at the age of 15. While
it is easy for adults to identify the immaturities of adolescence, it is also necessary
and fitting to tap into the many maturities – the hobbies, the sports skills and the
intellectual interests. It’s also necessary for teachers to assist their students to
reveal and display these talents, in a world that often makes it difficult for young
people to appear to be too serious.

In this issue we are having a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the other worlds of
knowledge, imagination and speculation that our contributors inhabit, and we hope
you enjoy reading about it.

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Ms Jeni Mawter Critical Thinking, Creativity and Humorous
Texts

By Jeni Mawter

ABSTRACT
It is essential that students learn to think in critical and creative ways -
using imagination, confidence, emotional and intellectual engagement - as
an underpinning for learning across all areas of the curriculum. Thinking
involves inquiry, posing problems, acquiring and questioning information,
thinking about possibilities, making decisions and forming judgments,
justifying conclusions, reflecting on and refining ideas, seeing and valuing
other perspectives, ethical reasoning, becoming aware of human existence,
imagining and creating, innovation and risk-taking. Being able to show and
value enterprise and innovation, and being able to engage and respond to
the world is crucial for human existence. In order to do this, students must
develop an ability to use language effectively and to critically reflect on how
language works. They must learn that language is used for a range of social
purposes and varies from situation to situation. To become competent
language users and learners, students must develop knowledge and
understanding of different texts and how these are influenced by context.
Critically thinking about a broad range of spoken, written, graphic, and
performance texts students will learn how language functions and how
texts reflect and shape social attitudes and functions. They will also learn
to perceive how texts position their audience. Humour requires us to be
flexible in our thinking so that our minds are open to change. We must
think about lots of different opinions and points of view. We must compare
facts with other alternatives, observe and interpret, use logic and reason to
imply, value and judge (or not judge). As well we have to cope with
contradictions, predict what may happen and develop options. The critical
thinking seen in humour means that minds have to be open to change
(based on extra information, opinions, facts or reasoning) even when faced
with conflicting information.

KEY WORDS
Critical thinking, creativity, innovation, risk-taking, humour, language, habits of
mind

PERSONAL HISTORY
My interest in critical thinking, creativity and humorous texts evolved from being an
Australian author of humorous texts for children. Between 2001 and 2005, I wrote
a humorous series called the ‘So!’ series, published by HarperCollins Publishers
Australia and aimed at the 8–12 year old market, especially the reluctant reader.
There are six books in this series with the dubious titles of So Gross!, So Feral!, So
Sick!, So Festy!, So Grotty! and So Stinky! From experience most kids love them and
adults fall into a love ‘em/hate ‘em dichotomy. The “‘hate ‘ems’“ are those referred
to in children’s literature as the gatekeepers: parents, teachers and librarians. From
the ‘hate ‘ems’, I was surprised to experience censorship in the following ways:

• teachers and librarians avoided the use of humorous texts

academics dismissed them by ignoring them;

• notable literary journals and magazines chose not to review or

discuss them;

• parents chose not to buy them;
• schools banned me from visiting and talking to students;
• booksellers either chose not to stock the books, or if they did stock

them, not to promote them;

• childrens’ literature awards were, and still are, heavily skewed

towards ‘issues based’ texts.

Despite this huge level of resistance from adult reviewers and those working in

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Give 100 writers one hour children’s literature and education, the books went on to become Australian best-
to write something sad or sellers.
serious and at the end of
the hour 100 writers will GENDER AND GENRE
have done so. Tell those For a long time I believed that not only genre, but also gender, was a big issue in
same writers they have one this. As a female writing gross humour for kids I was certainly writing out of
hour to write something gender. Where a male author could get away with ‘Oh, he’s just being a naughty
funny that will make people little boy’, a female author was met with, ‘How dare she!’ What’s that saying? Boys
laugh and only a handful can be boys for the rest of their lives, but girls must become women. Over time, I
will succeed’. developed a wider perspective and came to the conclusion that the problem lay with
the fact that there is a limited understanding of humour.

HUMOUR
It is said that humour is a slippery subject and after researching the area, I’d have
to agree. Moira Robinson states:

Our personality, our mood, our particular hang-ups, all influence our
response to humour, and the older we become and the more hung about
with quirky beliefs or inhibitions or prejudices, the more individual our
response.1

One of the perplexing things about humour is that so little is known about it. Moira
Robinson has also suggested that:

Humour is the Cinderella in the world of children’s literature. Volumes are
devoted to fantasy, to folklore and myth, even – belatedly – to poetry, but
humour is lucky to rate even an occasional chapter or article.2

Although these sentiments were expressed 20 years ago, little has changed.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was perhaps the first to recognise that tragedy is not
superior to comedy - they are of equal importance:

Humour is the only test of gravity and gravity of humour; for a subject
which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear
serious examination is false wit.3

It’s such a shame that this insightful observation has been ignored. Perhaps
humour fell by the wayside when the second book of Aristotle’s Poetics (350 B.C.E.),
which concentrated on comedy and laughter, was lost and then remained lost to
future generations. We have built our understanding of the world and art on
Aristotle's Poetics, but without regarding his whole work. His theory of tragedy may
have a different meaning when viewed in the light of his theory of comedy. So, we
study only parts of his thoughts and maybe this is why we find our thoughts on
humour today are somewhat confused, inconsistent, and lacking insight.

This was hugely perplexing because humorous texts are often much more
challenging for a writer. It’s said, ‘Give 100 writers one hour to write something sad
or serious and at the end of the hour 100 writers will have done so. Tell those same
writers they have one hour to write something funny that will make people laugh
and only a handful will succeed’. Only a few decades ago, children’s picture books
were similarly misread and undervalued. Then, educators realised there were signs
and significance in everything: from the white space to framing, from the picture
text to the written text, and from font choice to word placement. Significance
brought meaning and thus value. I came to a similar conclusion about humour –
that educators don’t understand how to ‘read’ it. They don’t know how to read the
signs. In fact, most people don’t even realise they are there. What we don’t
understand, we dismiss. After presenting a paper on humorous texts at the Sydney
Writer’s Festival in 2005 I was approached by Dr Wendy Michaels to write more. And
thus began my interest in critically thinking about humorous texts.

At the same time something was happening in education that was alarming me. As
a judge in many creative writing competitions and as a tutor of creative writing to
undergraduates at Macquarie University I noticed a disturbing trend. Students were
handing in work and assignments that were exquisitely written and crafted, but

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WHERE HER SPIRIT GROWS TALL

‘You can analyse the past, they were all the same. Where were the innovators? Where were the risk-takers?
but you have to design the When queried, my uni students responded that if they took risks they may ‘muck
future.’ (Edward de Bono) up’ their assignment and lose marks, something they were not prepared to do. Even
when I told them that marks would be allocated for creativity, not crafting, they
In oral cultures, thinking were reluctant to move out of their ‘safe’ place. I believe this is a flow-on from their
involves the complex logic education systems. I believe this is something we need to address.
of metaphor more than it
follows the systematic logic 4. CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING
of rational inquiry. It is essential that students learn to think in critical and creative ways and humour
is a wonderful tool for this. Thinking involves inquiry, posing problems, acquiring
and questioning information, thinking about possibilities, making decisions and
forming judgements, justifying conclusions, reflecting on and refining ideas, seeing
and valuing other perspectives, reasoning ethically, being aware of human
existence, imagining and creating, innovating and risk-taking. Being able to show
and value enterprise, being able to engage and respond to the world, is crucial for
human survival. As Edward De Bono said, ‘You can analyse the past, but you have to
design the future.’4

Humour requires us to be flexible in our thinking so that our minds are open to
possibility and change. We must think about different opinions and different points
of view. We must compare facts with alternatives, observe and interpret, use logic
and reason to imply, value and judge – or not judge! At times, we must suspend
logic. With humour we have to cope with contradictions, reflect and predict, and
develop options. The critical thinking seen in humour means that minds are open to
change (based on extra information, opinions, facts or reasoning) even when faced
with conflicting information, for example, we see this in puzzles, riddles, nonsense,
and ambiguity.

5. HUMOUR AND LANGUAGE
In order to appreciate humour, students must develop an ability to use language
effectively and to critically reflect on how language works. They must learn that
even the language of humour is used for a range of social purposes and varies from
situation to situation. For example, a simple pun in one situation might be a
sarcastic barb in another. To become competent language users and learners,
students must develop knowledge and understanding of different texts and how
these are influenced by context (purpose, audience, channel of communication and
content). Critically thinking about a broad range of humorous texts (spoken,
written, graphic and performance texts) will enable students to learn how language
functions. They will also learn how texts position an audience and thus reflect and
shape social attitudes.

It should be noted that the language of humour is the same as the language
developed in literacy. The ability to tell stories, use metaphors, present contra-
dictory ideas, create images, use rhythm and rhyme and metre, tell jokes etc is
found in both humour and literacy. In oral cultures, thinking involves the complex
logic of metaphor more than it follows the systematic logic of rational inquiry.
Metaphor involves representation of one thing as though it were something other.
The use of language rich in appropriate metaphors can stimulate creativity. Humour
is rich in appropriate metaphors.

6. THE HIERARCHY OF HUMOUR
As students move through the curriculum they can explore humorous texts of
increasing complexity and variety – from picture books to novels, from comics to
cartoons and graphic novels, from slapstick to stand-up and plays, and from
animation and television to film. They can progress from simple puns and word
play, to incongruities such as contradictions, oxymorons, tautologies, malaprop-
isms etc, to the complex language of irony and satire. As students learn to think
critically they will begin to judge and value humorous texts. They will form personal
preferences and responses, and notice and remember texts or parts of texts which
are meaningful to them and that will serve as models for creating their own
innovative texts.

An added bonus is that the study of humorous texts is fun, promoting student
enjoyment, interaction and classroom collaboration. The seeking and giving of
enjoyment establishes and cements relationships. Students will not only learn about

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WHERE HER SPIRIT GROWS TALL

It would be hoped that they their own creativity, they will also learn about the creative endeavours of others.
also develop the awareness The flow-on will be the formation of students who productively interact with peers,
that they ‘don’t know what who listen strategically and who learn to speak coherently and confidently. It would
they don’t know’ and thus be hoped that they also develop the awareness that they ‘don’t know what they
have the flexibility to seek don’t know’ and thus have the flexibility to seek other perspectives and knowledge.
other perspectives and
knowledge. Humour should allow students to express their thoughts, values, feelings and ideas
in a ‘safe’ environment. There is no place for rigidity or judgement. We must relax
the rules of reason, accept the impossible and illogical, turn off the self-conscious
and self-sensors. This is extraordinarily hard for many adults to do, but is quite
natural to a child. It is interesting that what is dismissed as silliness in today’s culture
has been valued in the past – for example the court jester or fool in medieval courts.

7. HABITS OF MIND
Costa and Kallick5, 6 describe 16 habits of mind that students need to employ when
faced with intellectual challenges that require them to bring about change in their
own experience. They stress it is not only important to have information, it is
important to use and act on it. They point out that habits of mind are based on
their value judgements, that they have valued one form of thinking over another. It
is laudable that humour is valued as a habit of mind but I’d like to add a word of
caution. Costa and Kallick warn that some students find humour in all the wrong
places and list the perception of human differences, ineptitude, injurious behaviour,
vulgarity, violence, profanity and when students laugh at others. I would caution
against this point. In reality, for both adults and children, a huge source of humour
comes at the expense of others, whether that be on the personal level or at a more
global level, against society as a whole. Humour is often subversive. This is not bad.
This is not wrong. This just is. When educators dismiss such a large source of
humour, it comes at a cost. Their approach to humour becomes narrow, rigid and
completely at odds with the goal of flexibility in creative and critical thinking.

I’m not declaring a field day for bullying, I am suggesting that with sensitive
handling educators do not have to make judgements that censor. Humour can be a
springboard to explore differences in gender, culture, age, normal stages in
development (such as an interest in the body and how it functions), socioeconomic
group, status (humour is linked to high situational status) and aggression. In terms
of social alignment it can be discussed how humour asserts social superiority,
subverts traditional power structures, shows cultural bias, provides an outlet for
critique of dominant social groups by those less dominant, alleviates tension and
creates congeniality.

TAKING PERMISSION TO BE CREATIVE
Costa and Kallick advocate deliberativeness over impulsivity in their 16 Habits of
Mind, and they warn about students who blurt out the first thing that comes to
mind. Again, I take issue with this. As a person who makes her living from creativity, it
is those impulsive thoughts I value, that lead me into places unknown and had
never dreamt of. When people tell me they couldn’t possibly do anything creative
the first thing I tell them is they have to give themselves permission to be creative,
permission to be silly, impulsive, random, extreme, all those traits that have been
socialised out of us on our path to adulthood.

In order to avoid the game of ‘Please the Teacher’, that I observed with my uni students,
we must liberate thinking and creativity by (i) accepting contributions without
judgement; (ii) encouraging a vast range of ideas and questions; (iii) encouraging
‘building’ on ideas and; (iv) encouraging obscure and unusual ideas.

(This year in June 2007 Macmillan Education is publishing my three books All You
Need To Teach Critical Thinking Ages 10+, All You Need To Teach Critical Thinking
Ages 5-8, All You Need To Teach Critical Thinking Ages 8-10. These merely scratch
the surface of questions about critical thinking, creativity and humorous texts, but
they are a starting point for future work in this area.)

NOTES
1 Robinson, Moira. ‘Humour in Children’s Literature’ in Saxby, Maurice and Winch,
Gordon (Eds), Give Them Wings: The Experience of Children’s Literature, The
Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, South Melbourne, 1987, p 277.

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JENI MAWTER’S 2 Robinson, Moira. ‘Humour in Children’s Literature’ in Saxby, Maurice and Winch,
RECENT BOOKS Gordon (Eds), Give Them Wings: The Experience of Children’s Literature, The
Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, South Melbourne, 1987, p280.
Link Below to All You Need 3 Aristotle. Rhetoric, Available from
To Teach Critical Thinking http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1833,%2007018: Internet
Ages 10+ 4 De Bono, Edward. Thinking about Thinking. DCUTIMES, University Magazine
Autumn Edition, 11 November 2005 Page 25
http://www.macmillan.com.au/Te 5 Costa, A., & Kallick, B., 2000. Discovering and exploring habits of mind.
acher%20Resources/onix/domisb Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development.
n/1420204858?open 6 Costa, Arthur L. and Kallick, Bena (eds) 2001. Engaging and Activating Habits of
Mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development.
Link Below to
All You Need To Teach REFERENCES
Critical Thinking Ages 5-8 Aristotle. “Poetics: Unabridged.” In Aristotle: Poetics, Dover Thrift Editions. New
York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1997
http://www.macmillan.com.au/Te
acher%20Resources/onix/domisb Aristotle. Rhetoric, lib. iii. c. 18.
n/1420204831?open
Costa, Arthur L., and Kallick,, Bena. Discovering and exploring habits of mind.
Link Below to Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development, 2000
All You Need To Teach
Critical Thinking Ages 8-10 Costa, Arthur L. and Kallick, Bena (eds), Engaging and Activating Habits of Mind.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development, 2001
http://www.macmillan.com.au/Te
acher%20Resources/onix/domisb De Bono, Edward. Thinking about Thinking. DCUTIMES, University Magazine Autumn
n/1420204831?open Edition, 11, November 2005, p 25.
http://www.ey.com/global/download.nsf/Ireland_EOY_E/Thoughtleadership-2006-
Thinking/$file/Thinking%20about%20thinking.pdf.

Mawter, J.A. So Gross! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2001
Mawter, J.A. So Feral! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2002
Mawter, J.A. So Sick! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2003
Mawter, J.A. So Festy! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2004
Mawter, J.A. So Grotty! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2004
Mawter, J.A. So Stinky! Sydney, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2005

Robinson, Moira. ‘Humour in Children’s Literature’ in Saxby, Maurice and Winch,
Gordon (Eds), Give Them Wings: The Experience of Children’s Literature, The
Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, South Melbourne, 1987.

Jeni Mawter is an Australian children’s author and Wenona parent who
writes fiction for the trade market and fiction and non-fiction for the
education market. She has a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature from
Macquarie University, Sydney.

A Reflection on Being an Educator and Fund-
raiser at Wenona

Virginia Howard, Executive Director of the Wenona Foundation

I am a passionate believer in the equality of women being achieved by giving girls a
good education. I also believe strongly in the importance of a single sex school for
girls. Part of my Master’s degree was spent investigating the research for and
against single sex schools, the irony being that single sex schools are best for girls
and co-educational schools are best for boys. It is interesting that some of the
independent schools who have recently gone co-ed are feeling compelled to
segregate boys and girls into separate classes for some of their subjects. But what
they cannot escape is that those schools usually are led by male Principals, so all

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Mrs Virginia Howard the girls in their school see leadership and the ultimate authority within the school
in the hands of a man, just as it still is in most of society. I think it is vital that girls
Readers who are interested as they grow up see women in leadership roles throughout the school, especially in
in further information about the role of Principal.
the education of girls are
invited to contact The GIRLS’ SCHOOLS NEED GOOD FACILITIES TOO
[United States] National A high quality education for girls is best achieved with excellent teachers but also
Coalition of Girls’ Schools. with good facilities. Yes, students can learn in less than perfect conditions. For
Website address is instance at Wenona in the 1940s Chemistry was taught in a primitive laboratory set
www.ncgs.org up in the school laundry! And yes, several of those students went on to study
medicine. But when girls are competing with students in the rest of NSW for a good
UAI in order to get into the tertiary course of their choice, they are likely to obtain a
higher mark with access to good facilities. So with that in mind, I have no problem
working to raise funds to improve the education of girls.

When it comes to good school facilities, however, the equality of the sexes becomes
an issue again. It is unfortunately the case that the facilities offered by most
independent boys’ schools are far superior to those offered by independent girls’
schools, due to the simple fact that parents and Old Boys have traditionally donated
more to boys’ schools. This, of course, is mainly a result of the once common
opinion that a boy’s education is more important than that of a girl’s. It was
assumed that the boy would have to work all his life to support a family, whereas
the girl would work for a few years and then have children and cease paid work.

The result of this old mindset is that boys’ schools have been able to provide very
good facilities and often extensive grounds. But society has moved on, and it is
pleasing to note that many parents now give equally, when they can, to both their
son’s and daughter’s schools. It remains the case, however, that girls’ schools are
still catching up from many decades of having a lower priority. Most girls’ schools
are working to upgrade their buildings and grounds and Wenona does needs to do
likewise.

PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES
The Foundation that I am privileged to administer, however, does not just raise
money for new buildings. One of the other areas that gives me the greatest
satisfaction is providing needs-based scholarships for girls who would not, under
normal circumstances, have an opportunity to attend an independent girls’ school.
This allows the girls to acquire a high quality education at Wenona and, as a result
of this, to go on to university and into careers that they would never have dreamt
could be possible. The Foundation currently is setting up a new Scholarship Fund
which I hope the Wenona community will support to provide further needs-based
scholarships for girls.

I do miss teaching sometimes, especially poetry and language with Years 11 and
12. But I have to remember one specific reason why I stopped teaching: I simply
could not bear to teach Lord of the Flies one more time. I had found the barbarity of
that superbly crafted book so confronting and upsetting that I did not feel I could
immerse myself in it for a fourth year in a row. So I moved across into the purely
administrative side of schools, where I have been able to use some of the skills I
learnt in my other two careers of charity administration/fundraising and local
government.

THE ROLE OF A FUNDRAISER
I find the various ways organisations function absolutely fascinating, I enjoy trying
to make them more efficient and I always am fascinated by the interplay of
personalities. So to be able to do this in the energetic and youthful atmosphere of a
school is my good fortune. I see fundraising as a very straightforward thing. When
asked, people will either give or if they do not want to or are unable to, they will
not. I do not see any problem with any aspect of that relationship. I only hope
people are as unembarrassed about the process as I am. I see my role to be on
friendly terms with everyone, to communicate what the Foundation does and to be
the vehicle for people wishing to make a donation in order to support and improve
the education of girls.

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Mr Jim Provencher Brodsky in America

Lecture at New South Wales Writing Centre

Jim Provencher – Writer in Residence and English Teacher

SETTING THE SCENE
As part of the Soirees Litteraires 'Talks on European Culture' Program, I delivered a
lecture at the New South Wales Writing Centre titled, 'Brodsky in America,' on 7
August. In the talk I outlined Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky's life, his
expulsion from the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, his aesthetic links
with WH Auden, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, TS Eliot, and Derek Walcott, and his
productive 25-year exile in the United States. While Brodsky continued to compose
poetry in his native Russian, he also published three volumes of scintillating English
prose essays, showing he had mastered that tongue as Nabokov had before him.

Brodsky maintained an apolitical stance during his exile, claiming he had only traded
one empire for another. He said a bird sings no matter what branch it happens to
light on. For Brodsky the only territory of residence was the poetic language
territory. When asked often how it felt to be in exile, he said: “To be a poet is to be
born into exile. I have always been in exile since birth. Only the American poets
saved me.” Brodsky went on to become the first foreign-born Poet Laureate of the
United States. Until his death at 57 in 1997, he refused ever to return to his
homeland.

Most of those in the audience at my talk were from the Russian Diaspora during the
1940s and questions and discussion continued long after the end of the lecture. To
conclude, I performed a poem I wrote 'to' Joseph Brodsky, entitled, "You Know I
Love the Russians." As part of this continuing European Culture series, I will next
speak on 'The Contemporary Prose Poem in France."
Jim Provencher

Brodsky in America: A Poet’s Happy Exile

‘The real biographies of poets are like those of birds, almost
Identical—in the way they sound, their twists of speech-song,
Their vowels and sibilants, meters, rhyme, and metaphor.
The poet is indeed a bird that chirps no matter what twig
It alights, hoping for an audience, even if it’s only the leaves.

Joseph Brodsky – “The Sound of the Tide”

INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH
• Brodsky in America: 1972-1996 (see chronology)
• “I was an American before I came to America.” Freedom, the Indiv-
idual and the decay of Individualism in the Modern world.
• Approach this period as a poetic biography: through the poetry(2
poems cited):
• His link to a Constellation of English Language Poets
• Tracing these links in his poetry.
• Connections with Donne, Eliot, Frost, Auden, Lowell, Walcott
• “The Condition of Exile”: How he exploits his exile: “I was in exile
from birth and being in a state of exile is the poet’s fate. I was
always alien, always the Outsider”.
• Are you American or Russian? I am a Jew who writes poetry in
Russian and prose essays in English.

IN THE SOVIET UNION - INTERNAL EXILE
Joseph Brodsky was born into a Jewish family in Leningrad, the son of a professional
photographer in the Soviet Navy. In early childhood, he survived the Siege of
Leningrad. When he was fifteen, Brodsky left school and tired to enter the School of
Submariners, without success. He went on to work as a milling machine operator at
a plant. Later, having decided to become a physician, he worked at a morgue in
Kresty prison. He subsequently held a variety of jobs at a hospital, in a ship’s boiler
room, and on geological expeditions.

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“Better American for all its During this time Brodsky engaged in an intense program of self-education. He
vulgarity and brutality than learned English and Polish(mainly to translate the poems of Czeslaw Milosz), who
the systematic human was his favourite poem and a friend. He also acquired a deep interest in classical
sacrifice of the Gulags.” philosophy, religion, and mythology and both English and American Poetry, to
Joseph Brodsky include the 17th century Metaphysicals such as Donne, Herbert, and Marvell. He also
developed a life-long passion for American and British Poets: Eliot, Auden, Frost,
“To be an Exile is like going Hardy, and Lowell. He admitted that he scrounged books from everywhere,
home because the writer including garbage dumps and tips.
gets closer to the seat of
ideals that were his original Brodsky began writing poetry in 1957. His work was apolitical. He also produced
inspiration.” literary translations. The young Brodsky was encouraged by Anna Akhmatova whom
Joseph Brodsky he met in 1961 at her Dacha and who called his verses ‘enchanting’. She especially
later like his “Elegy to T S Eliot.” In 1963, Brodsky was on a series of minor charges
related to his knack of not following the approved Soviet aesthetic line in his work
and translations. In 1964 he was charged with being a “literary parasite” by the
Soviet authorities. At this time the Khrushchev period of thaw toward the West was
shifting as Brezhnev came into power.

An excerpted transcript from his trial reads:

Judge: And what is your profession in general?
B: I am a poet and literary translator.
J: Who recognises you as a poet? Who enrolled you in the ranks and
pantheon of poets?
B: No one? Who enrolled you in the ranks of the human race?
J: Did you study how to become a poet? You did not even finish High
School, dropping out in Year 8!
B: I didn’t believe you could get it, poetry, from school?
J: Where did you get it then?
B: I think…it comes…from God, or maybe from other poets.

At this trial, Brodsky was to be called, a “Jewish pygmy in corduroy trousers, a
scribbler of poems that alternate gibberish with whining and pornographic
pessimism.” For his parasitism, Brodsky was sentence to five years internal exile,
with obligatory engagement in physical labour and served 18 months in the region
North of Leningrad. Brodsky was supported during his trial by Akhmatova,
Shostakovich, J P Sartre, and the International Arts community. The sentence was
commuted in 1965 when a State visit by Richard Nixon was seen to be causing an
international political problem since the trial and Brodsky’s dissidence had become
widely reported. He was exiled externally and hurriedly hustled out of the country
before the US vice-President’s visit. By then Brodsky had published only four poems
in Russia and most of his work had appeared only in the West or in samizdat. He
never returned to the Russia he left at 32, even when belatedly he was invited back
after winning the Nobel Prize in 1987.

EXTERNAL EXILE IN THE WEST
On June 4, 1972, Joseph Brodsky was expelled from the Soviet Union. His first top
was Vienna where WH Auden helped him with money grants and where he stayed
until he could travel to New York. It is significant that Auden is his first contact, for
Brodsky has always said that he is one of two poets most influential, necessary, and
precious to him. This Auden line, of course, links Brodsky back to the Metaphysicals
and Donne. In fact his first book of poems published in the West was titled, Elegy
for John Donne and other poems. (The other poet is Marina Tsvetaeva—completing
a kind of lyrical-intellectual hybrid of influence that marks all his work).

Once in the United States, he travelled first to Boston to link up with Robert Lowell,
a poet with whom he had natural affinities. Like Lowell, Brodsky had evolve a highly
idiosyncratic style that challenged the usual conventions and subject-matter of
traditional Russian verse. Citing Gavril Derzhavin rather than Pushkin as a literary
father, he chose to write in a loose harmonic style called Dolnik. He introduced
sharp-bitting irony and understatement, wit and metaphysical conceits, and
developed a voice that absorbed a range, a polyglot of poetic styles. His poetry is
dense with allusion and tense with intellectual insight and nervous energy and
acceleration of association. (Cape Cod Elegy 1974)

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The young Joseph Brodsky After making contact with Lowell, Brodsky returned to New York and settled in
Greenwich Village. There he began his career as an exiled writer—but one who
refused to be politically drawn or hemmed in. When questioned he often said, I
have just traded one Empire for another. At least here I won’t get thrown in jail for
writing as a free individual. Not that Brodsky wasn’t satirical or harsh about the
shallow aspects of popular mass American culture: This is a country of dentists!,
one of the 5 continents propped up by cowboys. Estranged, he felt his perception
sharpen, a good thing for the poet. “I am Nowhere, from Nowhere.” I have come
“out of nowhere into nothing” This is not a bad condition for poetry to grow in. “For
me, American was just a continuation of space. The dance of hot letters of Coca
Cola, a triumph of Mirrors!, a vigilance for things of the deadend. He felt that exile
helped him develop a more complex metaphorical system, and that it gave him
solitude and necessary isolation in his language territory, his mother tongue. He
never claimed to be a poet in English, though he did publish to some criticism work
in the language of his new home. He did eventually gain praise for his English prose
essays. His first book of essays was titled, “Less than One” a derisive and dismissive
term the Judge applied to him in his Trial.

A NEW STYLE FOR RUSSIAN POETRY
Brodsky stated that American poets had kept him alive while he was in Russia.
Dead, he said, poets become the supreme listeners. He continued to develop his
modernist style, his rapid fire cadences, his shamanistic incantatory, maddening,
proliferating use of metaphor, wrench his English versions into peculiar shapes. He
could be proverbial, surreal, a street talker, full of enigmatic condensed phrases,
following a stream of consciousness into baroque flights of fancy, including
supertexts and subtexts, cacophony, satire, lyric all in one poem. He often said he
liked New York, the Bronx, the Bowery, Wall Street, Harlem, he liked it because it
was kingsize. He liked its American Clamour and included that sound in his work.
He saw his poems as harmonic wholes that carried a kind of observing self-
consciouness. Poetry for him was above all a language event, a moment in language
history, and language, the word itself was humanity’s best stand against the
ravages of time. Time and what it does, how it grinds, was his lifelong thematic
preoccupation.

For him language, and poetry, centred civilisation and defended it against the decay
of passing time. Poetry was a mode of endurance, and exile was the best place to
make it, the ultimate and primal condition of the artist. Abstruse, sceptical,
mordant, digressive, wild, cynical, disorienting, destabilising, disruptive and
elliptical, Brodsky revelled in acting out an aesthetic freedom, free to have second
thoughts, free be free from the fetters of the self. Exile for him was first and
foremost a linguistic event, a retreat into the mother tongue. The Exile could be
forgetful, detached, indifferent, existing in the terrifying human and inhuman
isolation. Never home. This he believed the true best and natural condition of the
artist. He said: We must learn to USE exile and play at its effects and not to fall
victim to the allure of nostalgia. It is a state that invites a dynamic aesthetic
response. Yes, he said, we must be ready and free to criticise oppression, but even
more we must realise a freed man is not a free man. We must be willing to assume
a bigger role. And when a free man fails, he blames nobody!

Brodsky is primarily an aesthetic not a political creature. He has political opinions
but he does not insist on them. He resides in Russian, his language territory. His
home is anywhere near Leningrad. But: He is a man who likes to walk alone. He
counted Isiah Berlin among his heroes and Herzen was his inspiration for any
political insight. As Herzen said, Out of something crooked—the human being—
nothing straight will ever be made. Brodsky felt humanity’s gravest error was the
Enlightenment: to believe that man was ultimate a Rousseauan noble savage, was
ultimately good was a tragic mistake in human history, leading to the illusion that
we could systems and institutions needed to be perfected(like “Communism”)in
order to allow this natural goodness to shine through. Basically, Brodsky felt human
beings were dangerous. Even love was dangerous and fraught with difficulty.

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Above all, Brodsky is an opportunistic Stoic who perseveres and exploits his sit-
uation.

Overnight, exile brings one where it would take a life-time to go. A place
where one is alone with the self and language. This is the ideal Poetic place.

To be an exile is to be
A man hurled into space
In a capsule and that capsule
Is language.

Before long one realises
That the capsule is not gravitating
To earth but is shooting outward
Into space.

Exile then is first and foremost a linguistic event for the poet, a retreat into the
mother tongue where the intimate affair poets quest after can take place
undisturbed with words. The condition we call exile is really an opportunity to be
more free. The largest role in life, beyond the role of an exile, is the role of the free
man, the free individual. It is here the poet can truly following his intellectual,
intuitive, and revelatory path.

In 1977, when Robert Lowell died, Derek Walcott, the West Indian poet, said he saw
a man standing stoically, calm, and in an inspiring state of supreme reticence while
others were falling over themselves in the throes of the moment. Walcott reports
that he was magnetically drawn to this figure and approached him. Of course the
figure was Joseph Brodsky present at the funeral of one of his “necessary” brothers.
These two men forged a lifelong friendship. Brodsky influenced Walcott to move to
New York and to exploit his polyglot background and his position as an Outsider
and cultural alien. Brodsky described him as the poetic figure of supreme irony,
that the most mellifluous and elegant and eloquent contemporary English prose
was being written by a Black Man from the Caribbean. He championed and lionised
Walcott’s work and is the inspiration for his most recent book, The Prodigal. Derek
Walcott, himself, went on to win the Nobel Prize after his friend’s death. “Joseph
introduced me to the world,” Walcott said.

So, America was in Brodsky before he was in America. And poetry was in him before
that. Akhmatova noticed it immediately, shining through him, leaking out of him.
He lived out the fate of the poet in modern times. Perhaps he was the first global
poet in the new Global world.

Brodsky in the United States – from Wikipedia

On June 4, 1972 Brodsky was expelled from the USSR. He became a U.S.
citizen in 1980. His first teaching position in the United States was at the
University of Michigan (U-M). He was Poet-in-Residence and Visiting
Professor at Queens College, Smith College, Columbia University, and the
Cambridge University in England. He was a Five-College Professor of
Literature at Mount Holyoke College.

He achieved major successes in his career as an English language poet and
essayist. In 1978, Brodsky was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of
Letters at Yale University, and on May 23, 1979, he was inducted as a
member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In
1981, Brodsky received the John D. and Catherine T MacArthur
Foundation's "genius" award.

In 1986, his collection of essays Less Than One won the National Book
Critic's Award for Criticism. In 1987, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature,
being the fifth Russian-born writer to do so. At an interview in Stockholm
airport, to a question: "You are an American citizen who is receiving the
Prize for Russian-language poetry. Who are you, an American or a

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WHERE HER SPIRIT GROWS TALL

Russian?", he responded: "I am Jewish - a Russian poet and an English
essayist". In 1991, Brodsky became Poet Laureate of the United States. His
inauguration address was printed in Poetry Review. He married Maria
Sozzani in 1990. They had one daughter.Brodsky died of a heart attack in
his New York City apartment on January 28, 1996 and was buried in the
Episcopalian section at Isola di San Michele cemetery in Venice, Italy. Venice
is the setting for his book Watermark.

RECENT STAFF DEVELOPMENT

A Harvard Experience!

By David Browne, Head of the Junior School

During my recent sabbatical leave I attended a Leadership course at Harvard Uni-
versity. The topics and presenters are listed below. I have chosen just two small
concepts to present here, “Teacher Leadership” and “The conditions under which we
best learn”, which I hope you find interesting and possibly thought provoking.

HARVARD LEADERSHIP COURSE – TOPICS & PRESENTERS

Milli Pierce The purpose of Education.

Lee Teitel Using Partners to support Leaders in Deep School
Change

Project Adventure Activities designed to create effective working
groups.
Mr David Browne

Norman Kunc and Session One: - Inclusive Education: Rediscovering
Emma Van der Our Need to Belong. Session Two: - Supporting the
Klift Classroom Teacher in an Inclusive School.

John Collins Writing

Malachi Pancoast How to Work Less, Play more and still get the job
done in a normal school week.

Barry Jentz Communicating to improve performance.

Jim Honan Change that Leads to Improvement.

Jeff Howard Proficiency for all children.

Richard Elmore Accountability in School Improvement.

Irma Tyler-Wood The Leader’s Role In Managing Change

Katherine Boles Teacher Leadership: Making Teaching a Real
Profession.
Kim Marshall
Roland Bath Effective use of Interim Assessment

The conditions under which we best learn.

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TEACHER LEADERSHIP - MAKING TEACHING A REAL PROFESSION
“It is telling that an American parent’s aspirations for their child often include the
practice of medicine or law but almost never education”. Teaching is a job – not a
profession or even a career.

Although the softening of the US economy and a shortage of jobs has many college
graduates considering teaching, however, they only see it as a short term position.
The shortage of qualified classroom teachers is now a national crisis. Most US
teachers do not stay beyond 5 years. Trends in the US education circles are also
being reflected in Britain with a situation where 25% of Junior Schools do not have a
Head.

A recurring theme across most presentations focused on the need for children to
feel they belong to a school community, safe and valued. Feeling safe was a
recurring theme across many of the attending US principals. However, one must ask
how US principals feel safe and secure and have a sense of belonging when they are
on a year contract, and where their test score rate their school as an A to F school
within their district.

Under the leadership of a principal schooled in the new form of power sharing, true
team work and collaboration lead to shared decision-making and the improvement
of individual practice. Mentoring, supervision and professional development are no
longer add-ons but integral components of the career. A clearly defined career path
provides tangible rewards for accomplishment and professional recognition. When
teaching becomes a real profession, more academically able people will be draw
into it, and stay. Colleges will be forced by market competition to improve the
quality of their education and better prepared teachers will enter the classrooms
and improve the profession.

THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH WE BEST LEARN.
We learn best when we: learn from our mistakes; are curious; think it matters; are
challenged; have clear expectations; have emotional investment; are having fun and
feel supported. Learning falls into two categories:- Informative and Transformative.
The goal is to move from informative to transformative.

“I believe that a good school, even more than getting students to
"perform," imbues within students a commitment to lifelong
learning. I see many schools that succeed in getting kids to jump
higher and higher hoops, but when the hoop jumping is over, the
kids burn their books -- figuratively and sometimes literally.
Getting students to test in the 80th percentile is small potatoes
compared to equipping them [with the tools] to develop the ability
to pose and solve their own problems, and the resourcefulness,
dedication, perseverance, and joy characteristic of a lifelong
learner.

To help with the transition from school to work and to life, my
ideal school would have permeable walls, so students could learn
from the whole world, not just within those 40 by 40 boxes called
classrooms. There is much to learn from rich experiences out
there...about the environment, about politics, about history, about
math and science and art. Why restrict ourselves to manipulating
abstractions, worksheets, and workbooks in the schoolhouse? Look
at the remarkable work of, for example, Expeditionary Learning
and Outward Bound.”

(Roland Barth, from an interview with Education World, at
http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/chat/chat099.shtml)

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Mrs Liz Gunton The AIS Special Education Conference :
Opportunities,

Options and Outcomes
11-12 May, Ryde/Eastwood Leagues Club

By Liz Gunton

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
The keynote speaker for the conference was Graeme Innes AM, who is the Deputy Disability
Discrimination Commissioner. He provided an overview and explanation of the Disability
Standards for Education which commenced in August 2005. The object of these standards
is to eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination against persons on the ground of disability.
All pre-schools, schools and training authorities have to comply with these standards.

Graeme explained that it was the responsibility of the School to take reasonable steps to
ensure that a student is able to access support services on the same basis as a student
without a disability and without experiencing discrimination. The relevance of this to our own
school situation is that if an adjustment is necessary we need to make a reasonable
adjustment. Most of the cases that come before the commission are concerned with this
issue – whether a reasonable adjustment has been made.

The next presentation was from the Principal of Giant Steps, Kerrie Nelson. She
demonstrated the planning process necessary to teach a class of autistic students how to
swim. We heard from the swimming teacher, the classroom teacher and watched some
videos showing the processes and strategies they employed to help these students learn
and experience swimming in water. The plans for these children include many visual aids,
computer tasks, individual demonstrations and repetition of lessons. It was inspiring to see
the videos of students from this school participating in their first ever swimming carnival.
Other sessions which I found useful included a presentation from a speech pathologist,
Helen Wheatley addressing methods to facilitate communication in children with disabilities.
Some of these included visual supports, simplifying auditory processing and chunking
information.

The second day included a very motivating session by Sarah McDonagh from Charles Sturt
University on the need to develop a schoolwide approach to reading. She also covered
some useful curriculum based measures for monitoring student’s progress. Jacqueline
Roberts from Sydney University discussed educational placement for students with autism in
her presentation. She outlined the triad of impairments in autism 1- impaired communication,
2-impaired social relating and 3-repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. The challenge
is that we have a mismatch between these characteristics and those of the school
environment.

Jacqueline made suggestions from research of what makes a successful program. These
include covering in the curriculum social & communication skills, teaching organisational
skills and teaching adaptive behaviour strategies, initiative and choice making. If you are
interested in accessing further information in any of these areas please do not hesitate to
contact me as I collected a number of useful websites and information.

Grammar Teaching for You and Your
Stage 2 and 3 students

3 May, Japanese School – Terrey Hills

By Vicki Burkett

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
Sue Bremner was the lecturer and I found her interesting and the information relevant. She
dealt with the types of grammar and “text types” (genres) that should be taught across all
areas. There were many teachers there in their early 20’s and they had never been taught
Grammar at school and I found it interesting that they didn’t know what a phrase or anything
fairly basic was. She was very tolerant and in explaining many basic facts I actually learnt
new ideas for activities.

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Ms Loretta Visser Sue organised fun group activities that I have already started with my class and gave very
relevant handouts that are very useful. She talked about Text Reconstruction and
Mrs Danielle Greenberg connectives.
.
Screenplay Writing

From concept to Story to Script
5 June, AIS Conference Centre, Sydney

By Loretta Visser

This workshop was presented by Mike Jones of the Powerhouse Museum, and Karen
Stapleton. The day was broken into three distinct sections: Concept and Story, Writing
Screenplays, Planning and putting it into practice. In Session 1, we looked at the
requirements of the Years 7-10 English syllabus (and discussion of the Drama syllabus) and
the practical implications in the classroom. The format of screenplays, some web-based
resources and some starting ideas for student’s scripts. Session 2 closely examined the
structure of screenplays (using Aristotle’s Three Act Dramatic Structure), with examples
from films. This was a wonderful way of demonstrating theory in to practice. We again
looked at the conventions of a screenplay, with reference to an excellent (free) software
called ‘Celtx’.

In Session 3 we used the Celtx software to have a go at writing our own scripts. This
practical base put us in our students’ shoes – which is always a worthwhile task – and gave
us a chance to use the software first hand. This broke the task of writing a script right down
to bite size pieces, and demonstrated the wonderful extra tasks (such as detailed character
sheets) that the Celtx software has that would work really well within a classroom
environment. In a practical way, I feel that it could be used in a practical context immediately
within the classroom. The software also had formatting for Drama scripts, which could be
immediately used in Drama, and most likely in English as well. As film becomes more
prominent in Drama particularly, this will be an excellent support resource for staff and
students. It may even lead to a student film becoming a fully realised project.

Dynamic Geometry Software 1 & 2

19 June/24 July, PLC Croydon

By Danielle Greenberg

The aim was to introduce participants to the use of GSP and to allow them to explore briefly
other programs. The second session explored these ideas further. Laptops loaded with the
software were provided. The presenter explained how to use GSP and provided handouts at
each session with activities ranging in difficulty. These are very useful exercises and will be
an excellent resource for colleagues who want to use the program with their students or to
display ideas but need to improve their skills. Hints and suggestions were provided: the
selection of points and objects, the un-selection of same, trace points, action buttons. The
course showed several new aspects. The angle measure tool is not a standard feature, but
was included in one of the exercises and is very useful. Trace points and animation were
also mentioned. The transform menu with its transformations was an unusual and interesting
one. Participants were able to work through the exercises and explore the software and
improve their proficiency.

The presenter also demonstrated GEOGEBRA. This is a free-to-download interactive
software program which is similar to GSP and AUTOGRAPH, but with several unique
features. It is used at PLC to communicate with students at home on their own computers
and is very useful in that it is easily loaded onto anyone’s computer and is free. From what I
saw, the program is able to do a lot of co-ordinate geometry questions, with areas,
equations of lines, points.

The more software and other programs are explored and used, the more useful they are in
the classroom. This is not only for demonstrating ideas and introducing new concepts using
for instance the Smartboard and the data projector, but also for putting together worksheets
and exercises for the students to use. In this way they benefit from using this interactive
software.

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Mrs Beth Dulin Voice Care & Vocal Delivery

1 September, WEA Sydney
By Beth Dulin

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS:
This is a course run for teachers as an aid to looking after our voices. This is important as
we are, in effect, performers who use our voices regularly to do our job. The course covered
issues such as the anatomy of the voice, how to deliver your message which included a
range of techniques to warm up your voice. We then covered discipline techniques which
reduce the need to yell and strain ones voice as well as techniques to maintain our vocal
health. It was a great course and very worthwhile. I have days when I know I am not using
my voice as an effective teaching tool.

I particularly liked the part of the day when we looked at the resonators in our body (chest
and head/sinuses) and practises using the two and moving between the two. There was also
a valuable session on using pitch and modulation to make our voice more interesting for a
student to listen to. The great thing about this course was that it was run by Loretta Visser in
our English department so I know I can go and ask her anything which comes up as I try out
these techniques over the next few weeks. Her book is also available in our library.
(See Loretta Visser, The Teacher’s Voice, South Melbourne : Thomson Social Science
Press, 2006)

Dimensions is produced twice yearly, or otherwise as the need arises, as a service to
the Wenona Community. Members of the Editorial Committee are Mrs Michelle
Nemec (Chair), Mr David Browne, Mrs Carole Ferguson, Mrs Alison Pick, and Mr
David English (Editor). Contributions on appropriate aspects of teaching and
learning are invited from members of Wenona staff, adult members of Wenona
families, and former students.

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