Things that are round...?
On a visit to Shingo Junior High School, I was asked to help the third grade class with a group activity they had been assigned. The groups were basically playing Scattegories, with "animals that run fast","food that is white", and so on. One of the lists they had to brainstorm was "things that are round". As I walked around the room, I stopped at the group of boys at the back of the class. These boys are the cool kids of the class, and really don't like English that much. But I wanted to guide them as much as I can. I scanned their papers and saw their list of things that are round:
egg
soccer ball
basketball
arse
Wait...arse???
I double-took a look and sure enough there was the word arse proclaiming itself to be round. Just at that moment, the teacher was asking for each group to contribute to a big list on the board at the front of the class. My group of boys with their arse were coming up next to read their round words. It was too late for me to save their English. One boy stood up, read out his words, including arse, which the teacher wrote down on the board as "earth".
Of course, you say. I hung my head in shame at doubting the innocent minds of 15 year olds. I didn't show the boys where they should respell the word. I was in too much shock.
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I must also tell of a special time I had digging up sweet potatoes at Saigoshi. I was asked to help out the first graders, and we found some strangely shaped ones as we dug like dogs do. The 5th and 6th graders found a sweet potato that I swear was bigger than my head! I like to compare things to the size of my head.
I looked out at the view these kids have from their school...mountains, trees, fields and fields of crops. I want my children to have the same view one day.