Manch­mal muss man Sachen nur lan­ge genug auf­he­ben, dann kann man sie wie­der ver­wen­den. Der­zeit dudelt im Radio stän­dig „Ano­ther Brick in the Wall“ in einer neu­en Remix-Ver­si­on. Die­sen Song habe ich schon in grau­er Vor­zeit in Schul­auf­ga­ben verbraten:

Text: From The Wall by Pink Floyd

“The Hap­piest Days of our Lives”

When we grew up and went to school
The­re were cer­tain tea­chers who would1
Hurt the child­ren any­way they could
By pou­ring their derision
Upon any­thing we did
And expo­sing every weakness
Howe­ver careful­ly hid­den by the kids.
But in the town it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psy­cho­pa­thic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives2.

“Ano­ther Brick in the Wall”

We don’t need no edu­ca­ti­on3
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sar­casm in the classroom
Tea­chers lea­ve the kids alone.
Hey, tea­cher, lea­ve us kids alone.
All in all it’s just ano­ther brick in the wall
All in all you’­re just ano­ther brick in the wall.

Anno­ta­ti­ons:

1 ‚would‘ expres­ses a habit here: They used to hurt the children …
2 ‚to thrash sb. within inches of his life‘ means to beat him sever­ely and heavily
3 col­lo­quial for ‚We don’t need any education‘

Work­s­heet:

I. Ques­ti­ons on the text – Use your own words as far as is appropriate.

1. Com­ment on the use of hap­py in “The Hap­piest Days of our Lives”.
2. How do the tea­chers behave towards the child­ren and why?
3. Com­ment on “pou­ring their deri­si­on” (4) – Which sty­li­stic device is used here and how does it work?

II. Composition/Interpretation – What does the spea­k­er mean when he says that “(tea­chers) are just ano­ther brick in the wall” (18)? In which other fields of life do we have “walls”? Wri­te about 150 words.