I'm a good girl, I am!

March, 2010

Lord and Lady Macbeth harbor secret desires to live as crowned royalty in the Castle of Dunsinane. Macbeth, a war hero with visions of grandeur, returns home to a wife bored out of her mind. Lady Macbeth, stuck out in the country while her husband is off managing his lovely military career, is ready for an uptick.

Shakespeare doesn't let us in on this fun couple's pillow talk but I like to imagine their dead-of-night whispers.

"I know I could run this country better than Duncan...I just know it!"

"What I could do with the dining hall....Oh, the parties....That wallpaper is a crime....I mean, what were they thinking?"

On a long walk home from war, Macbeth and his friend Banquo climb upon a heath and meet a coven of witches. The hags fill Macbeth's head with premonitions: You are not only Thane of Glamis but soon will be Thane of Cawdor. You'll not only be Thane of Cawdor but soon King of Scotland.

Macbeth scribbles out a letter to his wife, she goes berserk with excitement and lickety-split the bodies start piling up. And as these things go, fear and suspicion walk hand-in-hand with guilt and no one gets a good night's sleep.

MACBETHMethought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast,—

LADY MACBETHWhat do you mean?

MACBETHStill it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'

Macbeth Act II, Scene II

Sleep-deprived and panic-rattled, the murdering couple collapse under the weight of their guilty consciences.

I asked the kids to open a fresh page in their journals and write about a time when they might have done something they regretted, something they felt bad about.

"Oh, Ms. Ryane?"

"Yes, Millie?"

"I can't do this."

"Really, why is that?"

"Because I'm a good girl. I never did a bad thing."

"Mmmm, I see." I looked over the group as they stopped writing and noted Millie's comment.

"Does anyone else have the problem Millie has? The problem of being too good?"

A few eager hands shot up.

"Then here's the news for guys: You can't be actors if you can't even imagine doing something naughty."

Say no more. Those pencils screeched across the paper, lickety-split.


CHILDREN'S WRITES: Journal Entries

I would love to have a ipod! I would love to have itotch (?). I would love to have a bunk-bed, without the bottom bunk. So...I would steal my mom's ipod, take my dad's itoch, and trade beds with my brother.

—Millie, 3rd grade

One time I told my mom I would go to the bathroom, but I went to eat candy. Then my mom said why is it taking so long. Then my came in looking angry. I was eating a Kit Kat. Then she found out. I started to cry because I knew it was wrong.

—Phoebe, 4th grade

What I was sorry for and I regretted is my spelling test that I did in class. And I realy wish that I good go back in time but it just hit me that I am unable to do that And whats so special about that test is that it could make my mom proud so I cheated and I got cought and I wish I could regret it and I got a big big zero.

—Garth, 4th grade

If I was lady mickbeth and I realy wanted to kill King Dungken just to be come qeen I woulden't do it even if Lady mickbeth did it. I wont even of my consens wich is the devil sais to. I wont becous my good consens told me to do the good thing. Because even if I did kill King Dungkin I wouldn't.

—Lizzie, 4th grade