Believe it or not, today is the last day of this year’s Anjali House Writing Workshop. The theme was change, and we used David Bowie’s song, Changes, as the starting point for our two weeks of writing and discussion.  But these kids know me and the process so well now — next year marks the programme’s 5th anniversary! — that they work incredibly efficiently. So I found myself with some extra time, and I asked them, “What else would you like me to teach you?” Their answer was, “Teach us about writing songs.”
I thought that was a brilliant idea, and although I’ve never written a song myself, somehow along the way I had picked up the structure of stanzas and bridges, and discussed how for some singers and some songs lyrics are important, like with David Bowie, and for some they’re not. I “recited” the lyrics of The Beatles’ She Loves You, which they found as insipid as I did. But then I had a lightbulb moment.
I always bring my laptop to school, so I got into my iTunes files and pulled up Blowin’ In The Wind.  I started to play it — I don’t know if there is a simpler example of the use of repeating stanzas and choruses. But then I started to repeat for them the lyrics, stopping the song after each stanza and explaining it to them.
This year we talked a lot about metaphor. How many roads must a man walk down, before we can call him a man?  Does Dylan mean real roads, like the one that runs outside Anjali House? How many seas must a white dove sail, before he can sleep in the sand?
Last week I gave the children the opportunity to discuss, in a safe non-threatening place, the changes which are happening in their country. The role of politics in their lives. Issues of freedom of speech, or the lack thereof. Corruption. Violence. War.  And so Dylan’s song brought the workshop full circle. It gave me a chance to talk about my experience of growing up in the era of “America’s war with Vietnam.”  And it allowed me, through the idea of protest songs, to discuss again the power of words.
None of the students had ever heard of Bob Dylan.  The 30-year old Khmer teacher hadn’t either. But now, in the halls of Anjali House, you can hear teenagers humming the tune and singing how many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?
“Blowin’ In The Wind”