WILMONT As the school year begins this week, the once empty hallways and classrooms will be buzzing with stories of summer break activities, from trips to another country to personal enrichment programs at camp to the seemingly endless hours in school.
In the teacher’s lounge at Lincoln Middle School, the story of Chon Lee’s summer might not be much of a departure from his student’s — the eighth grade teacher spent five weeks in England for professional development, participating in a seminar on Shakespearean plays.
It was time for a teacher to go back to summer school. The 29-year-old English teacher — a product of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District — received a grant along with 24 other teachers across the country through the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Shakespeare’s works in England with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The program, called “Shakespeare Enacting the Text” is conducted by a college professor every year, this year that honor was given to one of the most renowned Shakespeare scholars in the world, Dr. Jay Halio from the University of Delaware.
“The objective is for teachers of all different walks (of life) who have a passion for Shakespeare to come together and enrich themselves, immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s language and text and help us be able to bring back Shakespeare into the classroom,” Lee said.
Spending a summer in England, the birthplace of the playwright who gave Lee direction in life was a dream come true.
It was the power in Shakespeare’s words and the emotion of a high school teacher that ultimately pushed Lee to pursue comparative literature in college. Lee graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2000 with a double major bachelor’s degree in English and comparative lit.
Lee vividly remembers the moment that sparked his passion for Shakespeare’s work — it was during his junior year at Malibu High School and his English teacher was wrapping up a discussion about “King Lear,”reading the last scene from the play after Cordelia, Lear’s youngest daughter, had died.
The teacher talks about Lear’s speech on regrets, his relationship with Cordelia, when she breaks down in tears.
The students sat back stunned as the teacher regained her composure and continued on with the discussion.
“From that moment for me at least, it hit home,” Lee said. “This is how powerful language could be.”
Shakespeare has since become a part of Lee’s life and career as he has sought to introduce the author’s works at an earlier age to students, which is part of the reason why he participated in the summer seminar.
After kicking off their seminar at the University of Delaware, the teachers embarked to England in late June, traveling throughout the country to Stratford, Oxford and London. Their days were filled with intensive voice and acting lessons with performers of the Royal Shakespeare Company, enlightening roundtable discussions with British professors and Shakespearean experts and eye-opening visits to some of England’s most famous playhouses, including the Globe Theater in London. In total, the teachers watched more than 12 plays.
While Shakespeare’s plays are usually not introduced until high school in the United States, students in England are already learning sonnets in the third grade, Lee said.
“The language is so accessible,” Lee said.“It’s intimidating at first, but once kids get used to it, it becomes more accessible — they make that connection.”
The seminar was conducted through a performance-based approach, requiring the teachers to take vocal training lessons for an hour and a half a day and memorize sonnets and monologues. It’s the way Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be respected and the way in which they will be studied in Lee’s class this year.
“Kids cannot be sitting at a desk,” he said. “They have to get up, be lively about it and be enthusiastic and through that enthusiasm and spirit, help bring the words to life.”
The Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation recently awarded Lee a $1,500 grant to purchase costumes and props for his class this year.
Because the themes are so relevant in Shakespeare’s plays, they’re experienced differently at the middle school level than at the high school level, said Lincoln Principal Tristan Komlos.
“He is certainly an innovative and creative teacher,” Komlos said. “He’s constantly looking for ways to engage all of his students, not only in the English classes, but supporting our students learning English as a second language.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.