Joyful Learning and Shakespearean Knock Knock Jokes
In a funny scene in Act II of The Tragedy of Macbeth, a drunken porter responds to a repeated “knock, knock, knock” at the door to the castle imagining that he is greeting sinners at the gates of hell. I visited a ninth-grade English class earlier this week where students were acting out that scene for their classmates. With a wonderfully convincing and slurred Scottish accent, a student played the porter’s role to the amusement of the whole room; he was the only one not laughing! What struck me most was that the students were laughing along with the jokes in the way Shakespeare intended – delighting in the imagery, linguistic tricks, and performance.
How lucky are we to be at a school where we all – teachers and students – find so much joy in learning? I imagine that for some of us reading Shakespeare in high school felt like an intimidating chore or a struggle in translation. For these students, it was fun. That joyful approach to learning – fostered by the teacher and amplified by the students – paves the way for deep engagement and real understanding. I see it all around, across disciplines. I feel grateful to be at a place where joy travels hand in hand with learning and a deep sense of obligation to preserve that core piece of who we are.