Mystery Fridays

This is the first Mystery Friday I’m skipping. I hope not to offend anyone involved in devising “Mystery Fridays” (for those of you who don’t know - this is something devised by a committee. Instead of our 15 minutes of sustained silent reading, we devote that time to studying one word and its definition and examples of it in context. Then we are given another suffix or prefix and then a list of words that are based on the prefix or suffix. In addition we are also give a “Five Minute Mystery.” This is a short mystery we read with the students and then try to solve), but this latest one has gone too far. I read it ahead of time for once and was glad that I did. For I would be ashamed of myself as a teacher for wasting my students’ time on it. It is the story of the murder of a wealthy man who happens to have a very extensive collection of Greek mythological figures and art. There is a team of detectives trying to piece the crime together. The man is found dead. He has written one word in his own blood, “Venus.” Behind the venus statue, one young detective finds a weapon with the initials T.F.W. engraved on it. Now this is a reference to the man’s nephew. The young detective immediately assumes (as is the formula for nearly all of these mysteries) that the nephew killed his uncle. Of course, the wise veteran detective, who just happens to be an expert in mythology - Greek or otherwise - quickly dismisses the young detectives assumption. So we are left to figure out how the hell he knew the nephew is innocent. I had no clue. So I went to the back of the book where the answers are. Their explanation is that no aficionado of Greek mythology would refer to the Greek goddess "Aphrodite" as "Venus" (the Roman version of the goddess). How in the hell am I to know that? Let alone a sophomore. I didn’t think the mysteries could get any worse - the one about thieves stealing a truck load of microwaves and getting stuck under a bridge after exiting the freeway (they attempted to let the air out of the tires to get under the overpass) was horrible. But this one was idiotic.

So we will either do the first two exercises and skip the Mystery. I may give it to them and they can read it if they want. I may say screw it all and just keep working (no way choir or orchestra do this Mystery Friday crap - if they even do SSR. But they are part of the arts program here and are untouchable. When you think of the arts in our school, think of high school football in Texas), so why should I? Maybe I’ll have students devise their own mysteries to read. Maybe I’ll read them something worthwhile (possibly this blog). Ha.

In the end it, doesn’t matter because nothing will be followed through.

What worries me though is that some one suggested this text. How could anyone read through this thing and suggest we read such mysteries? Or did they just think it was a ‘good’ idea without really doing much research on it or thinking about it? Do we have a back up plan? We have already apparently lost our common prep ‘gurus’ (more on that later), so maybe we will ‘lose’ this too.

I understand that the thinking skills behind these mysteries are good for the kids. But they are too repetitive. The mysteries are mostly structured the same - front load the stories with several facts to confuse the readers. Then add in a few obscure words and red herrings to get the kids questioning and thinking. Finally, get them thinking is several different directions while they slip the 'solution' by you - or in this latest case - have such a damned obscure solution that very few will get it.

These mysteries are structured the same way as any Harry Potter novel or Saw movie. Rowling slips some obscure clue by you in the beginning of the text and the builds the mystery up throughout the entire novel. Then when the climax is reacher, sure enough, you go back and find the solution so obvious! The Saw movies are the same. They are all plot and little substance and just manipulate you. Just like these miserable mysteries.

I’m just fed up with ‘others’ trying to tell me what the hell to do in my classroom.