It's a far cry from Wordsworth, to be sure.

As much as I struggled with teaching certain texts this semester, I found that others, like T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" were everything I had hoped they'd be.

Here at the end of the semester, I had my favorite play of all time perched--a little beacon of hope for me. But teaching a piece with that much personal weight is not an easy task, to be sure.

When I first read Cloud 9, I was 18, and at the end of my fall semester of my freshman year. I had been raised in a conservative Christian household by excellent, caring parents, but my value system was in flux.

For those that don't know the play, the first act is a highly theatrical--even campy--Brechtian critique of Victorian sexual repression, patriarchy and imperialism. Part of the way it does that is to throw a whole range of taboos on its head, and so the play is very "racy."

My first class, true to form, couldn't stop talking about it. Running that discussion was like steering a runaway train. And as guiding a lively discussion is what I am best at in the classroom, this was great--a joyous experience. My second class, which I am coming to understand is usually following along with me, just not talking about it, was dead silent.

That day 13 years ago when first read that bombshell moment when the intrepid explorer asks the African houseboy whtehr the barns are clear so they can go f*ck, I felt punched in the stomach. This erotically charged taboo moment forced me to make a whole lot of choices: Do I close the play now in protest? Do I choose to close my mind to its rhetoric, even as I continue to engage it dispassionately? Do I allow myself to be swayed by its potent rhetoric, and trenchant critique? Do I let myself get turned on by it frank, playful sexuality?

I had forgotten that these students would be grappling with many of the same choices (many of them, I know, are practicing and devout Christians), and while I have an idea of how I might like them to respond, I am not interested in mandating a response--Indeed, I'd much rather conservative students muster a defense by engaging these explosive questions maturely than to just shut down, as I considered doing 13 years ago.

In the end, I switched course quickly, and had what seemed a very productive class, but was reminded that plays that are designed to make people uncomfortable in the theatre can have precisely the same effect in the classroom.