First, second, and seventh periods are still working on ballads. They’re finding it more challenging than they initially assumed: the rigors of structured poetry, with a set meter and rhyme scheme, can be daunting at first.

Fourth period went over the missionary circle chapter in To Kill a Mockingbird. We ended with one of my favorite quotes from the book:

Mrs. Merriweather nodded wisely. Her voice soared over the clink of coffee cups and the soft bovine sounds of the ladies munching their dainties. “Gertrude,” she said, “I tell you there are some good but misguided people in this town. Good but misguided. Folks in this town who think they’re doing right, I mean. Now far be it from me to say who , but some of ’em in this town thought they were doing the right thing a while back, but all they did was stir ’em up. That’s all they did. Might’ve looked like the right thing to do at the time, I’m sure I don’t know, I’m not read in that field, but sulky…dissatisfied. I tell you if my Sophy’d kept it up another day I’d have let her go. It’s never entered that wool of hers that the only reason I keep her is because the depression’s on and she needs her dollar every week she can get”

“His food doesn’t stick going down, does it?”

It’s a tricky phrase, that “His food doesn’t stick going down, does it?”. We spent a little time at the end of class teasing out possible literal meanings so that we could, for homework, figure out what Miss Maudie means.

Homework

• First, second, and seventh periods: continue working on the ballad.
• Fourth period:
  • determine the meaning of “His food doesn’t stick in your throat, does it?”;
  • read To Kill a Mockingbird chapters 24-28;
  • look at and participate in the wiki on the courses site.