Tales too dark to tell Essay Example For Students

Tales too dark to tell Essay Its easy to characterize the atrocities of the Cambodian holocaust as abhorrent crimes against humanity; explaining how such things could happen is far more difficult. Despite the political realities that allowed the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot to take control of the country, many Cambodians cannot help but point the finger of blame at their collective selves. The irony and conflict inherent in such an epic moral quandary would make good drama anywhere. In Lowell, Mass., where Merrimack Repertory Theatre staged an adaptation of actor and author Dr. Haing S. Ngors own story of his survival of the Cambodian holocaust, the drama takes on particular weight. David Kent, now in his third season as artistic director of Merrimack Rep, says that in the past three years the company has rededicated itself to telling stories of the Lowell community. With the staging of The Survivor: A Cambodian Odyssey, the theatre has taken a giant step in that direction. Cambodians make up more than 20 percent of Lowells total populationin fact, with an estimated 25,000 people, it has the second largest Cambodian population of any city in the U.S. Kent felt that MRT had to embrace this community in a meaningful way. We will write a custom essay on Tales too dark to tell specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now This city has developed an ability to incorporate immigrants into its fabricthough not perfectlyeven in the case of the Cambodian population, Kent observes. One in four students in the Lowell schools is Cambodian, and one in three Southeast Asian. And many of these are not just immigrants, but survivors of a holocaust. And so it was that Kent began searching for the vehicle to tell the story of that part of the theatres community. He enlisted playwright Jon Lipsky to supervise the creation of a script. Kent wanted to find paths into the Cambodian community of Lowell and harvest original, personal stories that could be forged into a theatrical event. One of the difficulties of doing so was that few Cambodian survivors ever speak of their experiences, Kent says. There was not only a cultural barrier, but the holocaust experience to overcome, he says. Or, as Lipsky notes, Theres a compact of silence surrounding the events. The subject matter makes it extremely difficult to get stories. Theres a natural resistance, and they dont tell the stories that are most meaningful without trust. It looked like a monumental task. Lipsky found his way in by accident, however, while in a bookstore looking for material about Cambodia. Haing S. Ngors now out-of-print autobiography, A Cambodian Odyssey, written with Roger Warner, told such a compelling tale of love and survival that Lipsky knew upon reading it that hed found what he calls the spine of the play. Ngors story has at the center of it an incredibly moving love story, which makes the horror all the more poignant, Lipsky says. Plus, theres an interesting antagonist, Pen Tip, who incorporates many of the figures who crossed Ngors trail. And finally, Ngor is the only Cambodian besides Dith Pran and Prince Sihanouk whom Americans know. Dr. Haing S. Ngor is in fact often confused with fellow Cambodian Dith Pran, the real-life former assistant to journalist Sydney Schanberg, whom Ngor played in the movie The Killing Fields. After the doctor was forced to become a slave in the rice fields and finally a manure spreader, Ngor ultimately escaped and discovered fame in America when he won an Oscar for his performance opposite Sam Waterston and John Malkovich. By virtue of his existence as a city dweller in Phnom Penh, Ngor, like Pran and millions of other Cambodians, was one of the new persons under the Khmer Rouge regime that toppled General Lon Nols government in 1975. The three million inhabitants of Phnom Penh were forced to evacuate within hours of takeover by the Khmer Rouge. The new persons were the last in line for food distribution and first in line for torture and execution. An estimated 1.2 to 2 million Cambodians died in the Khmer Rouge work camps. By denying his former status as a doctor and posing as a taxi driver named Samnang (Lucky), Ngor survived. But not without enduring near starvation, torture and the loss of his wife and most of his family. To this day Ngor defines himself as a survivor of the Cambodian holocaust. That is who I am. .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .postImageUrl , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:hover , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:visited , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:active { border:0!important; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:active , .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0 .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc38c527518f5d2eadff3bb38e8d61ec0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Henry Woronicz: in the rain with Oregon's own Renaissance man EssayThe Khmer Rouge systematically destroyed the family, village and religious ties that were the traditional fabric of Cambodian life, in order to begin a new communist existence with devotion only to the common good of the state. In the process, they committed atrocities as horrific as any in history. Ngor describes Khmer soldiers using bayonets to rip open the pregnant bellies of women suspected of being wives of intellectuals, then yanking out the unborn fetuses by hand and hanging them like windchimes from the roof. The film The Killing Fields, Ngor feels, hardly went far enough in depicting the horror. One of the major difficulties in adapting Ngors book, Lipsky notes, is communicating the extent of the horror without numbing the audience. If we get people only thinking, instead of feeling, that this is a horrible thing, then weve failed, he says. We have to allow people to have their feeling without going numb. Lipsky points out that as an autobiography, A Cambodian Odyssey is told from Ngors very specific point of view. To create a play with the requisite dramatic conflict and character development, Lipsky had to fill in the points of view of Ngors wife, My Huoy, and nemesis, Pen Tip. To insure artistic license, Kent and Lipsky got Ngors blessing to adapt his 500-page work freely, and consulted him numerous times as well. Kent and Lipsky knew that they would need help to represent the culture of Cambodia accurately on stage. And while they spent time in Buddhist temples and interacted with the Cambodian community when possible, the play owes much of its authenticity to the input of Samnang Wilson, who acted as a special assistant to the director. Wilson, a Cambodian survivor of the holocaust who lives in Boxford, Mass., says her own story is not that different from the drama on stage. Born in Phnom Penh and only 18 years old in 1975, Wilson lost her parents in the conflict, and then her husband was executed 15 days after her son was born. She escaped to Thailand in 1980, subsequently making her way to the U.S. I was afraid of reliving my own past, she admits, still emotional in recounting her reluctance to join the project. Ultimately, she decided it was more important to help tell the Cambodian story to the world. It was that element of memory that fascinated Lipsky. How does one go about remembering a holocaust? he asks. It takes an act of will to go back into your worst moments. The catalytic period in the development of the play actually came during a six-day workshop in January of this year, during which members of the Lowell Cambodian community were invited to observe and comment on the play-in-progress. Participating in the workshop were actors Ernest Abuba, who plays Pen Tip, and Dawn Akemi Saito, who plays Huoy. At one point during the workshop, Lipsky recounts, there was an impromptu conference with Samnang Wilson and the local Cambodians about a moment taken from the book in which Ngor and other survivors take out their revenge on a stray Khmer Rouge, ultimately decapitating him and installing his head under a sign reading Khmer Rouge, enemy forever. Perpetual revenge rejected While Americans like to think of things in black and white, Lipsky notes, Cambodians see ambiguity. The culture avoids directness. The Cambodians at the workshop explained that actually verbalizing Khmer Rouge, enemy forever, was to consign the nation to perpetual kum, or revenge. If you say forever, that means our sons and our sons sons will have to have revenge and it will never end, they said, suggesting a change. The change was made. And the play continued to change through the rehearsal period. The director and playwright both credit the actors with invaluable help and influence as it took shape. .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .postImageUrl , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:hover , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:visited , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:active { border:0!important; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:active , .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2 .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u70e9faa0b5d054a4862c5e50912990a2:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Grave matters. EssayIn the case of classical Cambodian dancer Somaly Hay, the input was more personal. A former court dancer in Phnom Penh, she received a letter when the city fell from a Khmer Rouge soldier telling her how to behave in order to survive, which she did. She eventually escaped and now lives in Connecticut. Cambodian Odyssey is immensely ambitious not only in what it attempts on stage, but also as it seeks to straddle an enormous void between two cultures in its audience. It must suitably explain concepts of kum and kama to an American viewer, while adequately telling a painfully familiar story to a Cambodian audience unfamiliar with the language or even the medium of theatre. One of the cultural bridges that the play needed to gap was the nature and source of the evil that spawned the Cambodian holocaust. The play is not about the Khmer Rouge being villains, nor about Haing Ngor being a hero, Kent explains. The rules didnt apply, and the play calls for a reinvestigation of expectations in evaluating the experience. Although we begin with Ngor as a hero and Pen Tip as a villain, it becomes clear that they are really not that different, Lipsky says. Survival doesnt have to do with good or evil.

The top 5 education jobs for 2018

The top 5 education jobs for 2018 â€Å"I should teach† is the common refrain of people everywhere who are fed up with their jobs at any given moment, but actually taking steps toward making that switch takes a lot more than temporary frustration. Whether you’re already on an educational career path, trying to decide what comes next, or you’re one of those career changers who has decided to go ahead and commit to that change, we have some insight into some of the top educational job prospects in the next year. 1. Instructional coordinator/designerInstructional designers, also known as instructional coordinators, are educational professionals who work more behind the scenes. They’re not necessarily in the classroom, but rather work with schools, school districts, teachers, and educational companies to develop and oversee educational curriculums and teaching standards. Their job may include training teachers, reviewing and recommending textbooks, creating materials that align with how studen ts learn, working with new technology to develop comprehensive learning materials or programs, and instituting standards across disciplines or schools.With the growing emphasis on curriculum standards and using technology in the classrooms, this is a field that is expected to grow faster than average over the next 10 years.What you’ll need: This is a pretty specialized field, and most instructional coordinators have a master’s degree, as well as past experience working as a teacher or a school administrator. Some states require that these coordinators have a license if they work in public schools, so be sure to confirm your own state’s requirements.What it pays: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), instructional coordinators make a median annual salary of $62,460 per year, or $30.03 per hour.2. High school teacherTeaching high school is not for the faint of heart. It requires a strong degree of familiarity with a subject and the ability to con nect with teenagers in an educationally meaningful way. But if you’re up to the task of dealing with the nation’s 16-year-olds, there’s always a huge demand for secondary school teachers.High school teachers typically have a specialty (like English, history, or math), and may teach different academic levels within that specialty. The job is heavy on classroom management, with a high volume of students, because the teacher may have a significant courseload. Most high schools keep regular hours (early morning until mid-afternoon), but teachers might also have to put time in during evenings and weekends to prepare for the days ahead. The good news is that you’ll likely have summers off.What you’ll need: A bachelor’s degree, preferably in the education field. All states also require that public high school teachers be licensed, so if you plan to teach in a public school be sure to understand what your own state’s requirements are for cert ification.What it pays: According to the BLS, high school teachers make a median annual salary of $58,030 per year.For more on how to snag teaching jobs:A Beginner’s Guide on How to Become a Teacher3. Elementary school teacherIf you’re interested in the classroom but are more interested in teaching a younger set of students, qualified elementary school teachers are also in high demand. Early childhood educators are responsible for the teaching and well-being of students ranging from kindergarten (or in some schools, pre-kindergarten) through fifth or sixth grade. They are often general specialists, and teach students a range of basic subjects like math, reading, writing, science, history/social studies to get them ready for the next grade. Because students are younger, there are often basic life skills taught as part of the classroom experience.What you’ll need: A bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. Each state also requires that public school teachers be licensed, so if you plan to teach in a public school make sure to understand what your own state’s requirements are for certification.  What it pays: According to the BLS, elementary school teachers make a median annual salary of $55,490 per year.For more on how to snag elementary school teaching jobs:How to Become a Kindergarten Teacher4. ParaprofessionalIf you’re interested in a career in education but don’t have an education-specific degree, becoming a paraprofessional can be a great first step. Paraprofessionals, sometimes called teacher’s aides, are educational professionals who assist teachers in the classroom. Duties may include teaching lessons, helping with classroom behavior management, taking attendance, monitoring students during activities, helping with grading, or working directly with students who need help. Paraprofessionals can be found in elementary schools, secondary schools, or daycare facilities.What you’ll need: A high school degree is usually the main educational requirement, but it helps to have completed some college courses or an Associate’s degree, particularly in education. Each state and school district has its own rules for paraprofessional certification, so you should see what your state requires. Many states and schools require that paraprofessionals take a standardized test to certify that these educators meet a minimum standard.  Ã‚  Ã‚   What it pays: According to the BLS, paraprofessionals make a median annual salary of $25,410 per year. This can vary based on experience, and whether the paraprofessional chooses to specialize in a particular teaching area (like special education).For more on how to snag paraprofessional jobs:How to Become a Paraprofessional5. STEM TeacherTeachers who specialize in the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) have a hugely bright future, as more and more school systems look to prepare students for an increasingly digital world. This is a specialty, usually taught on the high school level, where teachers prepare students for further study in engineering or the sciences. STEM teachers plan lessons, develop activities, integrate technology, and use current technology and science concepts in the classroom.What you’ll need: A bachelor’s degree in the sciences or engineering. You may also need a bachelor’s degree or higher in education, as well. Each state also requires that public school teachers be licensed, so if you plan to teach in a public school make sure to understand what your own state’s requirements are for certification.What it pays: According to the BLS, these specialized STEM teachers make a median annual salary of $107,490 per year.If you’re considering an educational career path, it’s hard to think of a field that can be more fulfilling. If you’ve thought it over and have decided to set your career path in (or near) the classroom, th ere are a number of paths you can take to take advantage of the current trends in education. Wherever you choose to go, a focus on technology will always bring you to the most promising opportunities in today’s teaching world. Good luck!