It has been really interesting because I just assumed that because I'm in South Africa, the students would be reading all South African literature. Not so. This year, they have read The Crucible, To Kill a Mockingbird, Shakespeare (duh), The Outsiders, Animal Farm, and several others that I had to read in high school. It was nice to feel in the loop during our discussions on these novels/plays/poems rather than basing everything I had to say off of someone else's notes.

Anywho...with that said, the Grade 11's just wrote their English Literature exams last week. I've been marking them fervently--er, uh, sporadically--over the past few days. Just as I was getting so tired of reading basically the same essay over and over again on why Boo Radley was such an important character in To Kill A Mockingbird even though he was almost never seen, I came across the most brilliant line I've ever read in an essay, and it was actually the opening sentence. It read, "In a city called Alabama...." I'll just let you sit on that one.

Cheers.