I (heart) Kafka

Mrs. Kalandyk just emailed us our reading list for this semester’s English lit class. I wish she wouldn’t do that - assume that we all have email - but whatever. I’m kind of scared but excited. It’s a really challenging list. Mrs. Kalandyk is my favorite teacher at RCHS (no offense, Evelyn) because she doesn’t treat us like kids. Freshmen in high school are not kids but some of our teachers act like we’re still in middle school. In a few short years, I’m going to be out in the general adult population and I need to know how to do things. I don’t think sitting in the same seat for an entire year and raising your name and saying, “Here!” is such a great skill to have. When in my life will I ever have a job that requires me to do that? I can’t remember Lucie ever telling me that she has to raise her hand when her name is called at work. So what does it matter if I miss homeroom once in a while? I go to classes, I do the work. Geez. Some teachers act like it’s the end of the world.

“Margaret Anne Shanley!”

No answer.

“Margaret Shanley!”

Nothing.

“Last call. Shanley, Margaret!”

A hand goes up at the back of the room. “Present.”

Ah yes, all the difference in the world.

Mrs. Kalandyk gave us Kafka to read last semester. Kafka! In freshman English! How awesome is that? I loved it. We read “Metamorphosis” about a guy who woke up and he was a giant cockroach and no one could understand him and they were all afraid of him because he was a giant cockroach.

This semester, I see “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole on the list. Yes! I have heard a lot of cool things about this book so I am totally psyched to read it. I just hope we don’t have to write some major essay about it. I love the reading part. It’s the writing part I’m not crazy about.