Playing in the background as I write this:  Michael Franti, Songs from the Front Porch

Blowing through the window as I write this:  The first serious summer evening breeze of the year.  It’s a perfect temperature and the wind is at just the right speed.  I’m actually just killing time writing this while a friend is on his way over to sit on lawn chairs in my very small yard and catch up.  It’s been too long since we’ve done that, even though we live near each other now and see each other in passing pretty often.

The school year ends, for all intents and purposes, tomorrow.  It’s the last day before Memorial Day, which means it’s the last day before it seems more than a little foolish to keep up the charade. And I wish I could play along with that, but something’s happened.

The Odyssey project might be breaking down.

I don’t know.  Maybe not.  But this week has been pretty rough.

Am I egotistical enough to say that it’s because I’ve missed two of our three meeting days this week because of other commitments I couldn’t get out of?  Of course I am, and I believe that that’s a big reason for what’s gone down.  With a few exceptions, the sophomores just aren’t taking any initiative. There are actors with one or two lines who think that sitting around waiting for a shoot to be scheduled counts as contributing; there are music crew members who refuse to be flexible; there are costume/wardrobe people who keep forgetting to tell the actors what they’re supposed to wear.  There are vision clashes and communication breakdowns and rampaging egos and trampled shy people who are just trying to get something, anything done.

There are, though, a few students who are getting more than their share of crunk on this project, and I commend each one.  These are students who understand that when they signed up for an Honors English class, it was because the ratio of work to reward would be challenging, and they’d be called upon to think creatively.  This isn’t an AP class, after all–these students need to be able to use 21st century skills to work together and produce new knowledge.

And the kicker is that I know they can do it.  I’ve seen what they’ve produced earlier–satirical films, informative wikis, brochures about reform movements, a fully-realized production of Macbeth–which makes this feeling about a hundred times worse.  Where’s the energy, the drive?  When I tell a dozen of them on Tuesday that they’re currently rocking pretty fat Ds on this project, will that motivate them to figure out what needs to be done and do it?