Guys, I have a fun story to tell you tonight! It involves Erika the Homeschooled actually going to public school! I know, right? Yeah, this one's a real thriller! It involves gym class! Hallways! Hordes of small children! Teachers unrelated to any of their students! Wow. Stay tuned for more after this short commercial break!
**************This is a commercial break*****************
This is an infomercial about a girl. It's about a girl and a professor. It's about a girl having an existential crisis three times a week. You see, this girl often passes a certain professor (we'll call him "Dr. Case") in the hallway and smiles and greets him. However, his response to her cheery greeting is a head nod, or perhaps an eyebrow twitch. This sends the girl into spirals of existential crises: "Does 'Dr. Case' hate me? Does 'Dr. Case' recognize me? Is 'Dr. Case' Eeyore as a human? Or is 'Dr. Case' just Eeyore? Why does 'Dr. Case' hate me? Does 'Dr. Case' get annoyed, walk down to his class, and announce to the students (while pounding his fist on the desk) that he's going to lecture about the wrath of God again?" And then one day the girl realized that this same story, told by "Dr. Case" would probably go like this: "So...I'm walking along, wearing one of my favorite monochromatic outfits (I can't actually tell them apart, of course), pondering the juxtaposition of Girard to Jungel in the matter of justification and atonement, when a blip crossed my line of vision. It appeared to wave, or otherwise indicate that it needed an indication of a response. I wiggled my eyebrows at it and it disappeared. Then I created a model theory of justification and atonement that incorporated Girard and Jungel, and continued on my Eeyore-like way to class, where I lectured on some topic I've already forgotten."
*******************This is the end of the infomercial. It actually wasn't an infomercial...I just wanted to tell you that story***************************
We return to our regularly scheduled programming. So, I'm taking a class here at college called Educating Exceptional Learners, and it's all about inclusive education, and incorporating general and special ed classes. One of the requirements of this class was that we students actually go to a real, live school and observe real, live kids and real, live teachers. I know, right? Wow, yes, the excitement never ceases here. This morning, our entire class descended upon several area schools. About 6 or 7 of us went to Delevan Elementary School. A classmate of mine named Heather and I hung out all day with a second grade class. It was a day filled with exciting events, just like in the books and movies! The kids learned how to do math, actually performed mathematical calculations on paper with pencils, at desks. Then they ate lunch, and went to gym class, where they ran around under the supervision of an actual gym teacher. Then they went to their classroom again (walking in a line down hallways, following their teacher) and learned more things and did more work. And then I left. So yeah. I was all like "ooh wow! a desk!" and "ooh wow! lockers!" and stuff.
I kind of probably should go back to doing homework now. Storytime over!
3 comments:
wow, I liked the infomercial! It must be interesting hearing the running commentary of life in your mind.
Ahhh...the wonders of public school, but I defy you of whether those children are learning the most important things of life. For example, can any of them quote Princess Bride by heart? Can they explain the natural habitat of a deer while gutting it at the same time? Can they list all the countries on a Risk Board and resources in Settlers of Ca-ta-n. These are the things that will stick with through tough times. Glad you had fun though!
In the theoretical situation that the moniker given to the professor you encountered is close enough to his real name that I know who you're talking about (and I think this is likely), then I must say that is pretty much the best paragraph I have ever read about him. Nicely done :D
Gryphon: haha...oh, my brain sometimes scares me :P And this is very true: I wa sactually pondering that, even though the public school kids may be doing more conceptual work than my younger siblings, give them a piece of playdough and they'll stare at it like, what? I'm afraid our kids are forgetting what it's like to be little. At church a couple weeks ago, we played with playdough for like 15 minutes in Sunday School. I used to play with that stuff for literally hours at a time, but these kids were bored after 10 minutes. So sad.
Nadea: haha :) thanks!
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