Swimming?

This year when my juniors studied romanticism, we read the usual stories: "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the modern-day "Quitters, Inc." by Stephen King, and "The Open Window" by Saki, a.k.a. H. H. Munro.

They seemed to get that romanticism isn't just lovey-dovey stuff, but EXAGGERATED elements, as in supernatural happenings, good versus evil, emphasis on nature, symbolic names, and, of course, a happy ending. "Quitters" was the favorite, probably because the story is more contemporary and relateable.

Several students suggested we watch The Notebook, as it exemplified much of what we discussed in the unit. My husband and I had seen the movie in the theater and liked it, which surprised us, because the previews had made it look a bit sappy. I didn't recall any supernatural happenings, but some of the other elements were definitely there.

"We'll watch it on one condition."

"You name it," they said.

"You have to be able to recognize and give examples of the romantic elements we studied."

"Yeah, yeah. We can do that."

Most everyone (even the guys) enjoyed the film and could recognize the elements, especially the scene where Noah takes Ali out in the boat to look at the swans. It is nature at her finest, and the visual beauty of the water and trees and birds reflects the growing feelings between them, and then there is the storm, rendering the tension. And then they run to the house and begin taking each others' clothes off.

Students are rapt, even those who have seen the movie before, but the silence becomes uncomfortable.

One of my more outspoken students blurts, "What are they doing, Mrs. Kies?"

"They're going swimming." Note to self: need not reply to rhetorical questions.

"Swimming" has now become the class code word for having sex. When we read The Scarlet Letter and were discussing Hester and Arthur's tryst, the Puritans would have been proud of, or maybe baffled by, our euphemism.

One day in the midst of a discussion on a related topic, I extended the metaphor: "It's never a good thing to let anyone talk you into going swimming if you don't want to . . . and . . . if you do decide to go swimming, remember to be safe and wear a life jacket."