A Study Break—Forever and Ever

I have always been enchanted by the concept of The Study Break. While I cannot remember a time I did not love to learn new things, I did find out early on that I completed work rather quickly, so I always welcomed the notion that one could take a break from work and study. I think back to how I loved to steal time away to read Cub Scout At Last! in the second grade (obviously timed by my mother right at the season I actually became a cub scout!) and then for the next two years I needed to break away from the rigors of elementary school life to gather any and all arcane knowledge about Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency. Next I had a book of historical plays (Hello? Destiny calling!) that needed direction and production. At Gamble Junior High I remember coveting time away from work to type up lists. Lists?! Oh my heavens—well, there was a book in the late 1970s called The Book of Lists, and I was consumed with making lists. Oh about anything. These lists ran the gamut from President’s Wives, to Oscar-Winning films, to National Historic Sites I needed to visit (and probably sought to run them if memory serves). In the 11th grade my best friend Kevin had yet another accident in his beloved Corvair (oh, he loved that car, christening her “Carly,” but he was a little accident-prone) necessitating a Study Break for me nightly so I could nobly take him home from work. I remember how exciting it was to get out of the house on those school nights, simply driving to pick Kevin up from the bowling alley (he and I reminisced at Christmas time about his chef’s outfit he got to wear!) driving him home, talking on and on about our friends Doris, Shelley, Celia, and the plays we were doing, and the plans we had.

At Denison—when I look back in those pre-internet, pre-phones-in-the-room days, life feels much quieter than I am sure it was. As a music minor, going downhill to practice the piano was often the Study Break. We had no bistro, no café, no real place open at night on campus, but there was a 20-something entrepreneurial guy nicknamed “The Hoagie Man,” who trolled around the dorms at night, hawking hoagies. He would enter a hallway and yell out, “Hoagie Man!” and the starved-for-activity-and-food students emerged from their cocoons.

As I got older, and became a teacher, there were often those weekends that required steady, intense work like college studying. It might be grading or preparing those comments that needed to be written for all your students. I still felt entitled to my Study Breaks, and when I moved to New York, they became much more glamorous. I would call my sister and announce, “this is the weekend for exam grading.” Elizabeth, the shrewd pragmatist that she is, would sigh and say, “Johnny, why don’t you do all your work first, and then reward yourself at the completion of the job?” It does sound smart, doesn’t it? However, I usually designed these elaborate Study Breaks, sometimes, well, often, taking place before any of the work had been approached. We had to write these comments, called “evidentials” at Hackley, several times a year, and they did require serious work and attention. There was my great friend Diana, math-whiz extraordinaire, who started her evidentials a couple weeks in advance, carefully planning to do 2-3 a night. Hmmmm…that is one way of tackling the job! I tended—tended? Nay, I rejoiced in waiting until the weekend before, and would plan how long each student’s comment would take, and then since I had done that work—I needed a Study Break! Fortunately, with New York City at my feet, that often involved catching a train and taking in an art exhibit, or a play—all in the name of the beautiful Study Break!

Well, it is time here at KA to grade exams, and write comments. Hmmmm…New York City is not at my feet any more, but wait…there might be fun things to do here for a Study Break!

On Friday, my new friend Tessa (new because she just joined us this month from her school in South Africa. She’s great! She had headed a school there for many years, has a wry sense of humor, and is one of those iconic, compassionate, educator-for-life types that blow you away. If any of you readers know my idols Mary Schneider or Anne Siviglia, imagine a South African version of those geniuses.) called up and said, “Right. [I love how the British accent types use the words, “right,” and “brilliant”!] Right. We need a Study Break. Why don’t we get a driver and go hiking at Mukawir?” Tessa said the magic words: Study Break!

Before long Tessa, Linda, Natalie and I were on our way to Mukawir, about a 45 minute drive away from KA. Mukawir was a place I had not yet visited, but it had an enticing glamour about it—biblical Herod’s summer palace! As we drove down the King’s Highway heading south from Madaba through quiet, picturesque farmland, I realized how exciting it was to be making new habits and rituals—oh yes, all in the name of getting those exams graded and comments executed.

The driver tackles these winding, winding roads expertly, views yawning in all directions, and we arrive at this majestic hill. It is a great hike (about an hour roundtrip—perfect for a Study Break!) up the isolated, conical hill topped by the ruins of Herod’s palace. I gotta tell you, it was another thrilling moment realizing I was visiting another place mentioned in the Bible. This was the palace where Herod (now, just so we are all clear, this Herod is the son of Herod the Great, the King of Judea who had had all the baby boys in Palestine killed after learning that a new baby boy King had been born.) had built a palace, a garrison, a viaduct, an aqueduct, and an assault ramp. According to the Roman historian Josephus, it was at this palace that Salome danced for Herod, and then urged Herod to present her with the head of John the Baptist on a platter. For a number of years I taught the Oscar Wilde play Salome in my 20th century history class, so I kept reviewing the scenes in my head from that freaky Freudian-esque drama. Christian tradition holds that John was buried where he died, in a cave near this hill.

So here we were—enjoying a great, sunny day and a Study Break hike up the hill. At the top we nosed around the ruins of rubble: columns and vestiges of rooms and cisterns. Soon after we got there, a busload of Korean tourists alighted, swiftly hiked up the hill, and engaged in a service of some kind with prayers, holding hands and some chanting. We stood off to the side, intrigued by their devotion in making this pilgrimage.

A pretty good Study Break.

I was back in my apartment grading not 30 minutes when KA friends Suzanne and John called and asked, “John, we thought we would take a Study Break tomorrow and drive to Karak. Wanna come along?” They’re playing my song…

So yesterday’s Study Break was a little longer away—about a 90 minute drive through the Rift Valley that bears a striking resemblance to Arizona’s Grand Canyon, to the town of Karak, famed for its millennium-old Crusader castle.

The hill on which Karak stands—with sheer cliffs on three sides and clear command over the neighboring deserts and canyons—is featured in both the Old Testament and Medieval lore. In my childhood, doing those history plays in the backyard I was always trying to recreate history—here I am sporting about in the castle walls of the real thing. Sorry—it still seems surreal sometimes!

In the 12th century the Christian conquerors built this castle on a famous site, famed for Nabatean warriors 1100 years before at that time. For a generation this castle kept out the Muslim interlopers trying to secure back their land. Saladin eventually overpowers the unctuous crusader Reynald of Chatillon and famously lops off his head (there is a great statue in town with Saladin posed mid-lop with his sword.) and recovers the castle and the environs, throwing out the hated French.

After trooping around the castle ruins for awhile and enjoying the Archaeological Museum, we availed ourselves of the buffet lunch in a newer part of the castle. Okay, time to get back to work—end of Study Break. By the way, I have taught the Crusades a number of times over the years in European history classes, but this week, yes, this coming week as I tackle them again, I have the benefit of just having visited for the first time a Crusader castle in the lands of the Crusades! I get excited about these things.

Oh no—this morning there was a glitch in the Study Break plans. Today was supposed to be the field trip to the Dead Sea, but it is foggy and rainy out. Hmmmm… Zeina, our intrepid driver, decides we should not venture down the windy roads, and if it isn’t a pretty day, what’s the point? We re-group. I will grade for awhile, then we will meet at the Mall, and watch a movie. Disaster averted. There is still a Study Break planned!

We take in the movie Enchanted, one of the most clever, delightful rom-coms I have ever seen! It is a twist, an homage, a parody, a gentle re-telling of every Disney romantic cartoon ever made. It begins as a cartoon actually, the feel of a 1950s Sleeping Beauty, but then one character ends up in Times Square, and all the cartoon characters are in our real life. Giselle is a young girl trying to get back to her Prince Charming, and actress Amy Adams could not have been more delightful as the Shirley-Temple-all-grown-up-and-sincerely-darling Giselle. Once she finds her Prince Charming she will enjoy happily ever afters forever and ever. There are obstacles along the way, and she meets the actor who plays Grey’s Anatomy's “McDreamy,” and in the clever telling of this confabulation of all Disney tales, it is utterly, utterly wonderful—with New York as a Wonderland.

The moment was not lost on me—here I am tipping off Study Breaks in a new land, with new sights to behold, new historical insights to savor, and I end up in a Study Break with my New York as a Fantasy. Pretty great.

Okay—there are 2 sections on 15 exams left to grade, and time is running out. Study Breaks completed. Work to get done. Pronto. See Elizabeth—I can take the breaks, and get the work done on time!