Text 216, 78 rader
Skriven 2006-01-16 11:52:10 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
    Kommentar till text 210 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
Ärende: What's in a Name?
=========================
Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  I couldn't get angry with them because they made me
AH>  laugh, but I made them think when I mimicked the
AH>  robots who ate "chicken embryos"....  :-))

JB>  Robot mimicry... "Chicken embryos"?  YIKES!


          I enjoy using humour in the classroom.  Unfortunately I often find,
as you do, that my idea of humour goes over like a lead balloon.  That's why it
was so satisfying to me that I had made these kids sit up & pay attention!  My
point was similar to one which is under discussion in ABLED at present.  I'd
mentioned that the Australian aborigines consider certain moths to be a
delicacy, and they thought the idea was gross & disgusting.  I wanted to show
them that other folks might consider what *we* eat to be gross & disgusting
too.  I don't know anybody who eats the European brown snails they could get
free for the taking from their garden, for example.  I wouldn't... but only
because they may have been poisoned by a neighbour who regards them as a
nuisance.  OTOH, some people will pay a lot of money to eat them in restaurants
where they are known as "escargots"....  ;-)



JB>  Chemistry, and English were the two subjects I had a
JB>  hard time learning. I really did try, but the synapses
JB>  weren't firing on those cylinders.


          I saw a poster in a school hallway recently with a quote attributed
to Plutarch... something along the lines of "A student is not a vessel to be
filled but a fire to be kindled".  Fortunately, I had an English teacher who
sparked my latent interest in grammar.  I didn't do too well at memorizing
valences & using them in mathematical formulas... but I can make baking powder
biscuits & get red wine stains off the carpet, so something must have stuck. 
And some time later I realized the differences between protein & carbohydrate
are almost certainly due to the presence or absence of nitrogen.  I didn't get
the info. from a chemistry textbook or a home ec. textbook, but from the GAGE
CANADIAN DICTIONARY....  :-))



AH>  I never expected to fit in with a sports-minded crowd.
AH>  I'm currently gaining further insight into their
AH>  reasoning style, however....  ;-)

JB>  And is that a good thing, or a bad thing? <G>


          On the whole, I think it's a good thing.  There are some
personalities I wouldn't care to know more about, except perhaps in an academic
sort of way... but I don't see them here.  I'm developing a greater
appreciation of a reasoning style which until lately wasn't familiar to me. 
Although I am trying not to use "psychobabble", certain technical terms might
help to clarify the issue....  :-)



JB>  I was never one for 'team' sport, but when I found
JB>  the aquatic, I jumped in with both feet. Yes, even
JB>  the cold  stuff. <-; I liked the atmosphere better
JB>  than any smelly locker-room. I found the people more
JB>  amicable than any sport coach, or 'team player' that
JB>  I had meet to that date. ...


          Yes, yes, and yes!  That's been my experience as well.  With regard
to "team players"... for years I interpreted the term to mean doing what the
leader said one should do & keeping one's own opinions to oneself, since that's
the way it's apparently used in politics.  But I see kayakers doing what we do
in music, i.e. bringing various people's skills together in a co-operative
effort....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver BC, CANADA [604-266-5271] (1:153/716)