On average, teens spend nine hours a day looking at a screen. As a high school teacher, I have observed many of my students immersed in their phones and computers. At times, it feels like an addiction, a force greater than I can comprehend.
I often wonder what is so important on those screens that make them check them so often. When asked this question, my students respond that they are looking at text messages, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in order to stay connected with the world and what is going on in people’s lives.
This technological phenomenon has been very worrisome for me. I am worried that my students are becoming displaced in their surroundings. I am worried that they will lose the skills to communicate face to face with another person effectively, that their motor skills will become affected and they won’t have the discipline to write legibly in the future.
So I decided to teach them about the Romantics. The word romantic originated from French, meaning old chivalry. In the mid 1800s, the English poets took the word to mean imagination. These poets’ writings were inspired by not only imagination, but nature, emotions and individuality. My sophomore classes read, analyzed and discussed the poetry of the Romantics. For assignments, they had to write their own poems emulating the concepts, structure and style of these great writers based on their own life and experiences.
I saw a shift in thought and expression in these young people. They started looking up from their screens and sharing what they hoped for in the future. These kids want to help others, travel the world, and experience different cultures, languages, people. They want to serve our country and become great fathers and mothers. They started looking around them, finding the beauty in the simple — a sunset over the lake, pictures from the past. Maybe Keats’ words found residence in these kids. Maybe they found the meaning of “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Jessica Mulvhill-Kuntz
Dolores
