Felons Love Macbeth??

You know that saying "when you expect it, they will bring it" (or something like that, it is Friday, so please bear  with me) well, my guys, ages 18-65, felons, some in there for 40+ life for all types of crimes, came into my English class on Monday not understanding what they were getting into and opening Macbeth. 

See, I had had most of them in the semester before and over time, they grew to trust me. They knew that I wasn't going to let them flail about and drown so they took a chance and requested my class again. (BTW: this doesn't happen very often) I front loaded a ton of info about the life of Shakespeare, the language, the feeling of the society, the background of King James I of Scotland and his love of witches- basically if I thought they would benefit from it, I was going to give them the information. 

But today, as I was looking around the room, hearing them analyze Act I, Scene 7, and snicker at Lady Macbeth's over manipulation and her way of stripping away Macbeth's masculinity, I knew that I had done my job, not only as an educator, but as a person that they can still count on to explain, show, answer, create analogies- they wouldn't drown even when it got a little harder and even when it was something they would never consider doing on the outside. It was an awesome feeling...

Question of the Day- Intent v. Desire

I used this Question of the Day, or "QOTD," in my Senior class while discussing Macbeth. It was a great discussion and my students were interested in determining the difference between desire and intention and how each type of emotion influences a person's reasons to commit a serious crime, such as murder or violent assault. We talked about murder vs. manslaughter and how these crimes are different from a violent assault or burglary.

Although I use this question for Macbeth, it also holds true for Frankenstein and other stories where a character moves into a different element of their psyche, where they struggle with the desire to be a moral and ethical person versus the desire to move ahead with ambition and without a conscience.