It began with the sound of the soothing song of the Black bird and its hectic, laborious upbringing of two or more broods of bickering hatchlings per summer – That was my image of the teacher I am becoming (willingly or not), and a suitable poetic background to the challenge of entering Sisters Academy for a short while.

In the process of finding my place in this strange as of yet non-existing universe, it struck me that the alienation I face is to some degree parallel to that of our average student at the school I normally teach: the language, the roles, the expectations, the unpredictability, all contribute to an at times stressful environment that we as teachers find natural and uneventful while our students constantly need to adapt and develop while striving to integrate it into their way of studying.

The materialisation of the universe gives me an opportunity to experience a type of verfremdung, while keeping my focus on teaching.

I believe this is a healthy process – although I have no clear image of my teaching methods at this point – and I intend to search for the link between the poetic inspiration of black bird abilities and a teacher’s toil and moil against his love of his subjects (pun intended) until the universe moves on.

At this point, I have no guarantee I will succeed – as is the case every day for many of our students – Instead, I whisper (to the Shadow(?)): Challenge accepted