When Jordan Rochstetler of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., pulled over at the Chick-fil-A on Walnut Avenue on Wednesday on his way to Atlanta he “had no clue” he would hear Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 poem “Annabel Lee.”
Rochstetler was all smiles when several Dalton Middle School students stood up at their tables in the restaurant during lunch and began reciting the first verse of the poem. As the poem progressed, more students stood up and joined until every person in the restaurant was paying attention.
Some spectators looked confused, while many smiled and took photos or videos of the group. As the performance neared its end, Rochstetler leaned over to a confused friend and whispered, “It’s a flash mob.”
Flash mobs are groups of people who perform in public without notice as a form of self-expression and — in this case — a form of education.
“That was a really nice, unexpected way for students to show what they’ve learned,” Rochstetler said with a laugh. “I think it’s a really great idea for kids to do this. I really enjoyed it. Wonderful idea; great idea.”
It was teacher Susan Ward’s idea.
“Our brilliant teacher came up to us and told us about the flash mob idea,” seventh-grader Marcus Shaheen said of Ward. “It was just something she thought up. We sort of took it as our own and we practiced it out and it’s something I really enjoyed. Most people like it.”
Ward hopes Marcus and his schoolmates will “remember this forever.”
“I’ve taught Poe for years, but I’ve never done a flash mob,” she said. “And I just said, ‘What if we do a flash mob in the media center at school?’ ... And then it kind of took a life of its own and the students were saying, ‘What about doing it here, or what about there?’ We did it at Zaxby’s (on Northgate Drive) on Tuesday. People clap for them, some people record it — the students love it. Now the kids are thinking, ‘Where are we going next?’ We don’t have any plans to do it again, but we’ll see what the school thinks.”
Seventh-grader Samantha Tabares “hopes to do it again because it was fun.”
“I’m glad we decided to come here so people could see us,” she said. “Some people kept on talking and laughed and were rude. Some people think it’s just a joke. But a lot of people enjoyed it. I really did.”
“They might not remember everything I’ve taught them,” Ward said of her students. “But they will remember this.”
Local News
Related Photos
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Patrons look on and snap photos as Dalton Middle School students stand and recite lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” Wednesday at the Chick-fil-A restaurant on West Walnut Avenue. From left are Daniel Wright, 13, Gabe Clark, 12, Harrison Norman, 13, Elena Leyssens, 13, and Jessica Jaconetti, 13. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
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Customers look on as Daniel Wright, 13, reads the last lines of Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" Wednesday at the Chick-fil-A restaurant on West Walnut Avenue as part of a 'flash mob' of Dalton Middle students. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Discussion
Dalton Middle students ‘flash mob’ Poe poem
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‘It was a brutal time’
Dr. William Blackman, left, explains how amputations were done during the Civil War with a bone saw as Brett Huske looks on at the Hamilton House Saturday. (Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen)
Dr. William Blackman opened a box of tools consisting of medical instruments, including a saw, and proceeded to tell visitors how they were used more than a century ago to amputate limbs for soldiers wounded on the battlefield.
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