Tom Bombadil in the Science Classroom

I am a substitute teacher. It’s not what I envisioned as my teaching career when I was a teenager and it’s not what I had in mind when I was in undergrad, but colleges don’t tell you that their education departments are filled with paper pushing, data mining, pseudo-academics who couldn’t outwit a Vogon; and I’ll spare you my speech about how “education” isn’t even a legitimate academic discipline and wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the modern bureaucratic nation-state. Right now I want to talk about Tom Bombadil.

This past Wednesday, Tom made a visit to the 6th grade science classroom of a Northeast Indiana middle school. I read (and sang) to the students what I take to be Tom Bombadil’s most famous song and to my surprise this rollicking band of pre-teens gave me some raucous ovations. Do not despair, though this election has worn our physical bodies away, the inner spirit of Indiana middle schoolers is being renewed.

Before the reading (singing), I asked the room if anyone had ever heard of J. R. R. Tolkien, and no one had; then I asked if anyone had ever heard of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and a few raised their hands – much less than I expected, given the movies – but these students were born in 2004-05 – so they missed Peter Jackson’s…interpretation. I gave the kids some background, talked about how wonderful the books are (I called them life-changing) and said they could find them at the library (you’re welcome, Jen).

Here’s the song.

Hey! come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?

Some classes didn’t get to hear it; one listened to a poem about a cowardly dragon named Custard (which they loved) and another the first several lines from Emerson’s “Nature” (which understandably received the weakest critical response from the audience); but Tom Bombadil is what all the students kept asking and talking about (word of Bombadil spread quickly in the hallways), especially the ones who didn’t get to meet the merry fellow, the Custard and Emerson classes. Today, two days later, the students wanted more Bombadil, but the language arts schedule was too busy for Tolkien.