My preceding post was written in the early hours of this
morning, thoughts I felt compelled to write and reflecting one pole of my urge
to write for this blog.
Not seeming that much later, I was outside early at just
after 8am marking further exam papers in the precious sunshine this summer when
I almost immediately came across the following. Considering my views expressed on
student responses to Slim’s ‘crushed stetson’, you will see in a moment what a salutatory
and chastening experience it was to read – quite clearly a genuinely personal
interpretation, perhaps prompted by the general notion I had characterised in
my post – but fresh and exploratory and convincing. From other writing in this student’s
overall response I can tell she/he is not particularly academic, but she/he is
certainly thoughtful and intuitive. This is what I love about this paper and
these responses.
Before I present it I will state that such work is
confidential and thus I am not naming the individual or the school or indeed
the exam Board and thus I feel it is apt to offer as illustration, especially
as a celebration:
The image that his ‘stetson
hat’ was ‘crushed under his arm’ later on ‘smoothed’ out with his ‘gentle’
hands shows he is capable to renew things, the idea on the hat being under his
arm creased and crushed yet with the touch of his ‘large and lean’ hands
restored right back to normal sets an image that the other workers are the Stetson
hat: ‘crushed’ with no enthusiasm, real men worn down by the great depression
that was upon them in the 1930s, however Slim took them and protected them
which is the image I thought of as the hat was ‘under his arm’, finally once
Slim offered a help in ‘hand’ the men became refreshed and restored and
inspired to carry on, such as the hat that Slim recovered with his hands.
Wonderful.
lovely!
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