Devonne Brown

“Didactic,” something that teaches a lesson. I’ve said that “didactic,” was my favorite word for years. and there are people who will verify this. I’ve been a teacher forever, I can only deny so many things. I  just looked up a bunch of synonyms for it in Thesaurus.com…

Academic, pedantic, homelitic, moralizing, pedagogic, schoolmasterist, why the fuck didn’t the list include schoolmarmist? That was an example of an interrogative rhetorical didactic sentence, by the way. Misogynistic bastards.

I am all of those horrible words, with sequins and taps on my shoes. I carry a laser pointer. I use a booming voice. Do not forget to raise your hand in class and yes, I do mean to be intimidating. 

I like context clues, but I don’t like curriculum and textbooks. 

I teach through story and make my students think. I force them to write five sentences daily and give points for them. Points mean nothing, carry great weight, and have a life of their own. Comedies and tragedies unfold over points earned or not every day. All comedy and tragedy can be literature, but not all literature is didactic. Some stories are just for show.

I like didactic literature. True comedy is not didactic literature according to Aeschylus who was an important dude who figured out Greek tragedy. Humanities class was a long time ago, but I remember these details. I thought they were odd, and ironic. In Greek literature the protagonist, or the tragic hero, learns something, grows, and changes, that’s didactic.

A Greek Comedy has nothing to do with humor and is all about remaining ignorant. Nobody learns anything in a comedy. They stay the same and sometimes fight to stay that way. Sometimes willful ignorance is involved. It can be a drive off into the sunset situation. Nothing is resolved.

Both are quite reflective of life. We travel long roads. Some of us need a GPS more than others. I wonder if using a GPS prevents a character from learning or has taught a character something? I learned I can’t get to my sister’s house in North Carolina without it. Even though I’ve been traveling the same roads for 30 some years now. I will take a wrong road without it.

I am capable of learning gadgetry and listening. I learned to use the GPS with pride and confidence. I’d follow it to the ends of the Earth.