The History Teacher by Billy Collins: Acted out!

The History Teacher by Billy Collins acted out by 3 students and a teacher from Albemarle High School. This is a video for a powerpoint presentation on the analysis Billy Collins' poem. The audio is by Explosions in the Sky and its title is "Your Hand in Mine." The original poem is below:
The History Teacher - Billy Collins

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

Category:

Education

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[thomasthetransformer]

This is a disgrace to Billy Collins, Rona give this video an F. Benjammin62001 is an idiot.

[ctaylor1001]

what a brilliant video! well casted and acted out. the scene changes are creative. great work!

[PRIORITY60]

What the heck? Why would you waste time just filming the man walking all the way out of the classroom? I've read the poem, and you should have made him walk out of the classroom, and then cut to the white, picket fence. Also, make a musical score that well fits each scene perfectly. Perhaps no music with a tension-like feel to the cinematography would be just perfect. But, like all good things, it needs work.

[ohjawillkommen]

lol jk, this puts my work to shame.Now I'm going to live out my life in a basement somewhere, hoping that these people make a movie about my life.

[ohjawillkommen]

Hi, I'm Billy Collins. This was the worst thing I've ever seen.