Saturday, May 14, 2005
Peace in the Hood
We recently read Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in a few of my classes. It was in their book. Next to the poem was a poorly done watercolor of a dirt road forking in a meadow, one path significantly bigger than the other and both leading to a “yellow wood.” Why the road wasn’t in the woods or covered with leaves untrodden like in the poem I don’t know, but it was close enough.
Before we read the poem I asked the kids to look at the picture, describe what they saw, and tell me which path they would rather take and why. Most kids described the meadow fairly accurately, but Pedro from Harlem had a different take.
“What do you see Pedro?”
“Thas the Hood.”
“The Hood, Pedro? Are you sure? That doesn’t look like the Hood to me.”
“Thas the Hood before. Back in the day. It was peace in the Hood back then."
We recently read Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in a few of my classes. It was in their book. Next to the poem was a poorly done watercolor of a dirt road forking in a meadow, one path significantly bigger than the other and both leading to a “yellow wood.” Why the road wasn’t in the woods or covered with leaves untrodden like in the poem I don’t know, but it was close enough.
Before we read the poem I asked the kids to look at the picture, describe what they saw, and tell me which path they would rather take and why. Most kids described the meadow fairly accurately, but Pedro from Harlem had a different take.
“What do you see Pedro?”
“Thas the Hood.”
“The Hood, Pedro? Are you sure? That doesn’t look like the Hood to me.”
“Thas the Hood before. Back in the day. It was peace in the Hood back then."
