Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Sardenes and Turkish Delight at school? Nov.2,2005

I hope all of you had as much fun as I did this afternoon sharing our thoughts and questions about this remarkable book!

In looking for answers to some of the questions you posed, I came upon some interesting information. Mr. Lewis apparently had a strong respect and love for children. He would take at least an hour almost every day to answerletters he had received from his readers. He even talked with them as if they were his friends, discussing his next book and asking their opinions. He felt answering the letters was a "God-given duty" and he loved it.

I think he would have liked very much to see us try out the tea recipes from his book and he would have wanted to be with you asking you questions. Because he was, as we discussed, a Classical scholar, he believed that it is very important to ask questions. He often responded to questions by asking his young friend questions to help lead them to think on their own.

He would have loved to hear you discuss what symbols mean. Several of you thought about the symbolism of winter, of white, of Aslan. You tackled some difficult questions.

Ian asked who the main character in the story was. Do any of you have thoughts on this? Does there only have to be one main character?

Candace you helped us tackle the difficult idea of who is "good" in the book. Does doing something bad make someone bad? We didn't fully answer that. Edmund certainly does very bad things in the story, but does that mean he is really bad or evil? You are right to ask why he chose to go with the Queen in the first place!

Nat, I liked the way you chose to support your thoughts with quotes from the book.
Zach, you certainly had an interesting idea about Spring, and I would like to hear more of what you thought.

Swing you brought some excellent insights about who Aslan represented and I like thinking about your question about why Edmund would take the candy from a stranger like the White witch!

Very few of us would choose evil if it looked like evil when we begin to do something wrong. Just like Edmund we let ourselves be taken in when someone flatters us or offers us something we really want.

Bryan and Taylor, your questions go right along with this one. Why would someone sacrifice his/her life for anyone? What grought back Aslan's life?

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