We are the course 11c of the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Erfurt. On the photo you can see us…nine boys and eight girls and our English teacher Ms. Böttger. Next year we will (hopefully) pass our A-levels.
In the lessons on Tuesday, March 16th we were handling imaginative worlds. First we had to think about how a perfect world would be to us. We should imagine what we could see, hear, taste, smell and touch in our ideal world. Furthermore, we compared our worlds with the ones of our class mates. We recognized a lot of similarities, e.g. most of us thought about being at the beach, lying underneath a palm tree. But there were some differences, too. For example in what kind of food we would like to taste. Later we started to work on the book. So we compared 'our ideal world' to the one of Christopher. The task was to make a list of what they have in common and what is different. To me it was a bit surprising that I found even more than one similarity because this boy is the complete opposite of me. We have in common that in our perfect world we would be totally free and could do whatever we wanted and go were ever we wanted, even though our plans how to become that free are quite different (he wants nearly all people to die).Further, we checked out what Christopher's fantasy world can show us about his character. We found out that he does not really likes social contacts because he wants to be nearly alone in his world. Then we got a worksheet about the thoughts of Christopher's mother while she was talking to Christopher. We had to add what we think she could have thought in this moment. Last but not least we made two circles of intimacy – our one and Christopher's. It shows which persons have the most intimate relationship to us / Christopher. Here you can see an example of how it could look like:
(Father I – his father before Christopher finds out that he killed Wellington and lied about his mother / Father II – his father after Christopher finds out that he killed Wellington and lied about his mother)
On the last lesson on Friday we began with the statement “Everything is going to be all right. I promise”. So we thought about it and looked it up in our books to find the context. It was Christopher´s mother who said it to her son after she had an argument with Christopher´s father in her flat in London. The topic was that Father wanted his son back but Christopher wanted to live with his mother.
We took this situation as origin for a role-play: the hearing between Ed Boone and Judy Boone about the custody of Christopher. So we built six groups each for one character and worked out a statement of two minutes to say our position about what the best thing would be for Christopher.
The mediator started the hearing and gave an overview about the confused situation in which Christopher and his parents are. After that he handed over to the lawyer of Christopher´s father. He said that Mr. Boone could handle with Christopher alone, because he cooked his meals, cleaned his clothes, looked after him, took him to the doctor and went to school if Christopher was in trouble. On the other side Christopher´s mother left him, because she was be a very hot-tempered person and had hit him if the situation was too much for her. Therefore, she would not able to take care of him. Then the lawyer of Christopher´s mother gave his view on it. He wanted that Judy Boon gets the sole custody for Christopher because it was the wish of Christopher to live with his mother. Moreover, his father hit him after writing the book. That showed that he was unable to take care of Christopher he said. Next Siobhan a teacher of Christopher told her opinion. At first Christopher´s father did a good work handling Christopher, but Christopher is in a deep shock because he is scared about the killed dog and he would be frightened that his father could kill him. But Christopher´s father supported him in everything and so she would suggest that the father got custody. Then Mr. Jeavons the school psychologist went on. He said that it is important to know that Christopher had the Asperger's Syndrome. So he should live with his mother because he is frightened of his father. Christopher could not trust or believe in his father anymore because he could not understand the emotions and feelings of his father. Therefore, he does not know why his father has not shown him the letters and could not understand why father told lies like that mother was dead. But there was the option to trust his father again. Then he should live with both parents together. And at last a social worker said that he would like to have custody for the mother because it was Christopher´s wish. Even if the father was the better option because he had more experience, it was Christopher’s wish so he had to decide where he wanted to live. After that the jury gave short statements - one said he would prefer the sole custody for the mother another said the shared custody, so Christopher could learn to trust his father again. In the following voting eight jury members decided for a sole custody for the mother. Only two preferred a sole custody for the father and one went a shared custody.
In our last two lessons on Tuesday we worked with our book again. In the first lesson we thought about lies and promises and about white lies. White lies are used when somebody doesn’t say all of the truth because he doesn’t want to hurt the other.
We talked about Christopher's interpretation of white lies and that he thinks that white lies are statements that have in common that something has to be left out. We found out, that Christopher´s opinion means, that all people lie if they leave something out. This is not right; of course, people leave something out, because some things are not relevant. At the end of the first lesson we discussed Christopher´s traits and peculiarities. For example that he is not touched with pleasure.
In the second lesson we spoke about Christopher´s father and the rules he sets his son.
The rules are: 1.) Don´t ask Mrs. Shears who killed Wellington! 2.) Don’t say the name “Mr. Shears”! 3.) Stop the detective game! 4.) Don´t walk into other people’s garden! 5.) Don´t stick your nose into other people’s business! 6.) Stop writing the book!
Then we talked about how cleverly Christopher handles these regulations. We came to the result that Christopher broke none of the first 5 rules. We think that Christopher takes a passive role; it means that he doesn’t ask about the killing of the dog and only listens to other people. The name “Mr. Shears” is spokes by him only out of the house. He breaks only the last rule. We found out, that if he stopped writing his book than the novel would have ended on the point where his dad forbade him to write it. We all agreed that this would have been horrible. Think about it!
In addition, we read a few more chapters and then the lesson was also over again. Check again to see like it goes on.
Task: Write about the character of Mother. What kind of person is she to you? What can you tell about her relationship to Christopher? Support your opinion with references to the text. Only use evidence from the letters.
Judy Boone is the mother of Christopher John Francis Boone and lives with Roger Shears in London. Although she loves her son very much, she left him because of her affair with Mr. Shears but the biggest reason for moving to London without him was that she thought it’s the best for Christopher. Judy Boone is a very hot-tempered person, who gets angry very quickly, shouts very often and also hit Christopher sometimes. That’s also why she didn’t stay with Christopher anymore; she said she “couldn’t take it anymore”. Because of getting angry so often she had a lot of discussions with her husband, so she felt lonely and looked for help in Roger Shear’s arms and so it’s happened that they fell in love with each other. Christopher’s Mom and Dad are very different on the emotional layer. On the one hand Ed Boone is very patient and doesn’t shout often, on the other side Judy Boone gets angry very quickly. So this relationship didn’t work anymore. And when Judy saw how harmonic Christopher and Ed got on together she felt very sad about the feeling that they don’t need her. So she left her son, although it “breakes her heart”. She was just overwhelmed by the situation because living with an autistic child is not easy because of their exesses. She gets kind of depressive and so she thought it’d better for her son when she left. In the letters you see how hard the situation is for her. Phrases like “I think about you all the time” or “I still love you” show that Judy Boone can’t live with her son anymore but she also tries to explain to him why she left. She says frequently that she is sorry for everything. She is very honest because she told his son her true situation - That she couldn’t handle the situation and was tired of Christopher’s illness. Her love for her son is also expressed in questions like “Do you remember…?”, there you can see that she likes to think about the “old good times” together. She wants her son to live in her life, so she told him much about her life, although they are divided by a very long distance. In my opinion she took the right decision once she shows her endless joy about Christopher’s visit to London and leaving Roger for living with Christopher. In the end you can say about Judy that she is a very hot-tempered person who loves her son very much and wants only the best for him, but she is also a emotional woman who needs her own life with love and a privacy.
After her death Christopher has his own way of thinking where his mother is now. Explain what you think of his ideas and compare them to your own beliefs. Do you find them disgusting? Comforting? Weird? Factual? How do his ideas fit with what you know about his way of thinking?
Christopher as a special kind of human has a very factual view of life and death and life after death. Actually, he does not believe in life after death for the reason that he cannot imagine that there is something like heaven or hell or even a soul. He rather thinks of humans as biochemical complexes whose lives are over when their brains stop working. The only way people could exist further is - in Christopher's opinion - as dust and molecules we get in our lungs every time we breathe. This point of view must be sort of disgusting for some people. I also can just partly agree with his perception. Our bodies might be divided into tiny pieces after we are dead and we will become part of the environment but I believe in souls. I have no idea what could happen to them; either there is a heaven or reincarnation or anything else. No one can tell because no one has ever returned from death until now. Moreover, it is unromantic to think that we are just bodies with no content or deeper sense. It is hard to accept that our thoughts and emotions will end with our death so we try to make up a world beyond life. And that might be the reason why most of the people feel uncomfortable when they are confronted with Christopher's way of thinking.
(by Ly)
As we know Christopher can only understand things which he can explain to himself with science (physics, maths, etc.). So when he was told his mother died, he had to imagine where she has gone. Mrs Forbes told him that her mother has gone to heaven but he cannot trust her because she believes in heaven and for Christopher, who is not able to explain heaven in a scientific way, it does not exist though. When her husband, the vicar called Reverend Peters, told him that heaven is not in our universe Christopher tried to explain this possibility with a black hole in fact that there is nothing in our universe like heaven. And to get dead people there he thought of shooting them on rockets into the black holes but this would be noticed by other people.
But his mother was cremated so she burnt into ash and smoke. What happened to the ash he will never know because he could not ask the crematorium due to his absent during the funeral. The smoke went through the chimney into the sky and so Christopher thought that there were molecules of his mother in the sky, “or in clouds over Africa or the Antarctic, or coming down as rain in rainforests in Brazil, or in snow somewhere.”
Christopher tried to explain heaven as a proven thing by science as in fact he cannot imagine illogical things. He does not notice that he destroys the beliefs of other people with his way of thinking and explaining. His biological view on death is in my opinion the most factual and believable explanation (because it is science) but the idea of shooting dead people with rockets into black holes is far from factual it is more disgusting and weird. However, all in all it is a typical thought of Christopher by explaining it with science.
As for me, the biological explanation fits the most because I do not believe such things as heaven but maybe some kind of circulating souls in the world.
Today our teacher Ms. Böttger gave me a very difficult task and now I’ve got a problem. I have to write at least 300 words, but I don’t know how I can realize that. I want to try:
In our fourth lesson about the novel we talked about people’s emotions, especially about Christopher and his problem with non-verbal communication. As you know he is autistic and so it’s difficult for him to recognize his emotions and to show or to say them. Also, he can´t imagine the feelings of others and it’s impossible for him to interpret something like gestures.
Therefore, Siobhan gave him some smileys on a piece of paper and explained to him what they meant. Until this moment the paper is Christopher’s companion - he carries it in his pocket. But that’s not all what she does for him concerning this topic. She helps Christopher to understand that one smiley can express different feelings and moods. However in the daily communication with other people the smiley-paper in his pocket doesn’t help him. It’s very difficult to decide which diagram is most like the face a person makes, because people’s faces move very quickly. So, he throws the paper in the bin and gets used to asking people what they mean or he walks away.
For us as readers it is not easy to recognize the character’s emotions because Christopher can’t describe them correctly. But it is possible, if we look exactly at Christopher’s words. You should know, Christopher uses a lot of aspects to describe the figures behaviour and feelings in the novel (that means in his own book). So it’s an indirect way for us to understand people’s emotions. For example: If Christopher describes, that the policeman “closed his mouth and breathed out loudly through his nose” I as a reader know that this man is stressed.
Another example … Oh sorry, it’s time to end – 323 words. Good bye! :)
Today, we started properly with the murder mystery novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” written by Mark Haddon.
Although our first experience with the book was reading it, we had some new experiences today, too.We were concentrating on the main character of this murder mystery novel: Christopher John Francis Boone. Christopher seems to be an unusual teenager due to his behaviour, but with the help of a so called “continuum” we found out that he does have some ordinary characteristics, e.g. he likes dogs and is very curious. And this is how a “continuum” works, referring to Christopher like we did: You draw a long line, on the one end you write “ordinary teenager” and on the other end you write “unusual teenager”. Then you read a few chapters again and the information you get has to be matched either to the one or to the other side, according to which one fits better.
Another point we had a look at was Christopher´s not understanding of jokes. We already found that out while we were reading the book, but we had a closer look at it today. After all we figured out that he doesn´t like jokes because of the double meanings of some words. He feels uncomfortable with it as those double meanings make him think of too many meanings of one word at the same time and this is too much for him, so he gets confused and therefore he doesn´t like jokes.
As the book is a murder mystery novel we also talked about what is typical for this genre. We came so far that we can say the murderer, the victims and witnesses, but also the murder itself and an object like a garden fork that is used to commit a murder are typical for this special type of genre, but the setting is also important to create a certain atmosphere.
So far for one day, other interesting days will certainly follow when we are going to deal with the book in more detail.
Christopher, a 15 year old boy who has the Asperger Syndrome, is telling the reader of his book "The Curious Incident of the Dog at the Night Time" at the beginning, that he is not telling jokes, because he does not understand them. He gives the example of a joke, which punch line is based on the double meaning of a word. Christopher explains that if one word has two or three meanings, it is for him like listening to three different songs at one time. There is too much information in one word and his brain is unable to work this out.
You can follow that situation if you imagine a German person, who is trying to understand an English joke. That person might have learned English very well, but he does not have the language skills of a native speaker, which he needs, to understand double meanings or sound differences (e.g. hair - hare).
As an example, you could take that cartoon. The first speech bubble is just easy to understand. The woman is asking the man, why the golfer is wearing two pairs of trousers. Of course you have to recognize that she is talking about the golfer, because that is important for the joke, but you can also see a man playing golf in the cartoon. The second speech bubble contains the joke. It is based on the double meaning of the word group "hole in one". The difference between both meanings is the rhythm of speaking. The first meaning just says that the golfer might get a hole in one of his trousers - because of that he is wearing two pairs. The second meaning refers to a special golfer term. A "hole in one" is, when a golfer gets the ball in the hole with just one turn. Now you have to get those two meanings in your brain and put them together. Very difficult for a person, who is not a native speaker.
On this homepage we want to talk about a very interesting book. Its name is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time” and it was written by Mark Haddon in 2003. This book is about the little Christopher John Francis Boone who is affected by the Asperger´s syndrome, which is a neurobiological disorder and a special type of autism, but the people who are affected are not that hard to handle like the “real” autists. If you are affected by this syndrome on the one hand there is an inability to interact socially, which means that it is very difficult to get on with other people, because you do not understand their emotions and feelings, you cannot interpret their gestures and if they tell you some jokes you will not understand them. Also it is very difficult to understand the meanings of metaphors or some figures of speech. You would have problems with your motor functions and this is why you maybe would have a bad handwriting or would be some kind of unathletic. But on the other hand you are very intelligent and because of the Savants syndrome you would have a huge knowledge in a special topic – mostly some kind of science like mathematics and physics. You would love precision, perfection, the truth, logical things and would have a really good sense of justice. This is why this syndrome also is called “Little Professor Syndrome”.
But it is difficult to understand the feelings and emotions of such a person and this is why they will need a special handling. If a child is about four years old you will recognize the syndrome because of the symptoms. Especially in this age – when they are younger – they need help and education in how to behave socially. In addition to this they need good teachers and the parents have to know what their child is feeling and should know what it likes and what it does not like. Also, it could be that they need a good doctor, because some of these people get very depressive or aggressive when they are older. If they are getting older they will understand, that they are different and it is difficult to live alone with nearly no friends. Also special schools are important, because it is very bad, if these children become a victim of bullying. So there should be found the right way to handle the positive characteristics and to get on with the negative and then these persons have a good chance to be integrated in our society, to get a job and to become a good worker or scientist.
The following video clip gives you an insight of how it looks like if somebody is suffering from autist symptoms.
