My adwisory

Last night was the high school advisor night.  Almost all the high school teachers are assigned a group of 8-12 students who you take care of now and then until you leave or they graduate.  I have a group of ten grade 11 students who are a pretty diverse bunch.  To give you a picture, I have two staff kids, three Koreans, an Afgani, a few Americans, a few Indians, and a Thai girl. One student was practically born at Woodstock, while two just arrived a few weeks ago.  Last night, all high school advisors had to entertain their students for a few hours.  Some teachers had the students over to their house and some went out to eat.  

I took my group to Rice Bowl, a local restaurant.  I ordered some pork thukpa and momos.  To translate, I ordered a bowl of noodle soup and dumplings, both Tibetan.  The school gave me Rs 1350 plus I get Rs 240 for the kids not eating in dorms.  The bill came to about 1850.  Somehow, despite me telling the kids that I got money AND taking into account my own food, when I paid the whole thing, they flipped out.  "You shouldn't have done that!" they yelled.  I'm not sure if I said this before, but the students are easily bought.  I know, it sounds bad.  But for kids in a boarding school, taking the kids out to eat now and then will buy their affection.  After Rice Bowl, we went to Cafe Coffee Day (next door) for dessert and beverages.  Most of us ordered a sizzling brownie, and I think it's necessary to have a separate paragraph for this next point.

People like sizzling stuff.  Seriously, who doesn't want to squeal with glee when your hot food is making noises at you?  Back home we have fajitas and maple blonde brownies.  Here in India, a lot of the more upscale restaurants (for Woodstock staff) have "sizzlers" where the food comes out on a hot skillet, choking everyone with its smoke.  The brownie I had last night had smoke created from burning chocolate sauce.  It tasted a little carbonized, but was otherwise a tasty dessert.

Now that I've taken my kids out to eat all together, my plan is to have them over in groups of 3 or 4 for breakfast-for-dinner.  I've been perfecting my chocolate-chip pancakes and I can make some great greasy diner-style hashed browns.  I'm excited for it myself.

Ciao.

Wisdom

School started this past Wednesday, about two weeks earlier than I was ready for. Everything is going fairly well so far. I now teach 9th grade RE (same as last semester), 10 grade RE (general Western philosophy and the philosophy of religion), Old Testament Survey, and 10th grade world history. All around, pretty fun.

So far, having only seen each of my minor classes twice, I'd say my favorite is the 10th grade class.

Today in class, we talked briefly about what they take for granted and how they find out what is real and true. When I asked how they know tectonic plates cause earthquakes, one student confidently said, "textbooks." It got me thinking, and, being my style, I thought aloud, that for these students, the textbook is everything. Their lives depend on them knowing what the textbooks say in all their classes and being able to vomit that information on their APs, SATs, ACTs, and IGCSEs. We followed it up with talking about how we use our senses and reason to figure out many things, but the idea of textbooks stuck with me. How much do I believe based on textbooks, or what a teacher said, or what I read on some blurb online? I certainly know that I have said things wrong in class, and I've seen some poorly written textbooks...

I stick with Socrates' saying: "Wisest is he who knows he knows not." Or, the similar proverb: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I don't think that would fly if I said it in my class to a question I don't know how to answer, but... I'll still sick with ol' So-crates.