The Trial of
Jack Merridew
My tenth
graders have been reading the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William
Golding. It is about a group of boys
escaping war. Their plane crashes on a
tropical paradise and they are left to survive without any adults. As the weeks pass, their paradise turns into
a hell on earth, with two of the boys dying at the hands of the other boys.
It is a
difficult book, but it has a great message.
The bible teaches that all men are born sinners. Just as Adam and Eve, placed in a paradise,
all men will sin if given the choice. We
all need to understand this concept, so we can see ourselves as we are. At that moment, we recognize our need for a
Savior.
To put an end
to our book, we conducted a trial of the antagonist in the book, Jack
Merridew. Jack was a choir boy; skinny,
red-headed, about 13 years old. He at
first supports the protagonist, Ralph, but as the book progresses, he believes getting
food by killing a pig is more important than keeping a signal fire going. So he breaks from the tribe, creating a new
tribe with the purpose of getting meat.
That leads to the death of two boys, Simon and Piggy, and a hunt to kill
Ralph. Our trial was to decide if Jack
should be jailed, executed, or set free.
Siwon was
chosen as our judge; a more fair and balanced girl you will not find. Zac played the part of Jack (I did that
because of the rhyme of the names).
Carlos, Juan Carlos, Sofia, Fabiana, and Kendra were our jury.
The prosecution
team was a second Sofia and Aram. At
first they wanted to load down the case with too many charges against the
accused. I, the teacher, wanted a
trial. I did not want to see the case
end in a plea bargain. Aram wasn’t happy
about that, but he did put up a good fight.
The defense
team was Rodrigo and Liliana. Both were
passionate to see their client set free.
Abie, Santiago,
Diego, Leo, and Nicolas played the roles of various witnesses.
It took us two
days for our case to be tried. This
group is passionate. They get in trouble
a lot, but that is because they aren’t at school to be entertained. If they have a firm hand and a teacher who
believes in their worth, they will do whatever is asked. They know if someone likes them or not. I’ve said before that I love this class.
Both sides
fought to win. At times they looked to
me like they would get in a fist fight, but they only resorted to accusing each
other of lying or changing the story. We
did finish the fight when the foreman of the jury, Carlos, pronounced Zac
guilty, and sentenced him to juvenile detention until 18, followed by 4 years
in prison.
Judge Siwon
surprised them all when she changed the sentence to juvenile, plus 2 years in
prison.
“Mister, can
she do that?”
“She’s the
judge.”
We had a
blast. This is why I have been a teacher
for the last 31years.
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