If only it were just that simple
Scene: Dorcasina and daughter snuggling in bed. 7:15 a.m. Daughter has turned 5 the previous day.
Dorcasina's Daughter: Mama, what is being Dead?
Dorcasina: It's when your body stops working. It means you are no longer part of our world.
D's D: My Papa is dead. He's not a part of our world.
D: That's right.
D's D [waits just a second too long, which suggests a certain intentionality and perhaps even a bit of manipulation in what follows]: I know! [too brightly]. Maybe we can find me a
new papa.
D: Well, it's not that easy to find someone as special as your papa.
D's D: Well, maybe we can ask some of our friends if one of them can be my papa!
D [envisioning how this will go over among her male friends, and groaning to herself]: Ummmm...maybe that's not such a good idea...
Labels: adorbable, Kids today, speechless
Groan
We're all overwhelmed, of course, by the tragedy unfolding at Virginia Tech. My students wanted to talk about it, briefly, although their comments were more condemnatory and distancing than thoughtful or profound. I know, however, that it is too much to expect profundity in the face of the inexplicable. But I had hoped for some glimmer of insight into the fraying fabric of society, the pressures--emotional and intellectual and social--of college life, the increasing fragility of our students.
Nope.
After it was clear that we weren't going to get past the "what a pscyho!" sound byte, I asked if anyone had a segue from the tragedy of the world at large to the specific tragedies of the novel we were reading.
"I do," offered one student. "Next week my sorority is selling designer jeans for our philanthropy project. They will cost
much less than usual." [Picture me, mouth hanging open. Making designer jeans available to the campus community, whose students are spending some 30K/year to study here, and who almost invariably drive a nicer car than their professors, is considered
philanthropy? God help us.
I retain sufficient composure to ask, "Which organization does this benefit?"
Student [names national organization for girls which, to my knowledge, has no particular focus on the halt, the lame, the blind....or the poor, for that matter.]
"Well, okay then," I say, haltingly. "Let's start by turning to page...."
{Snick, remember that we are thinking of you all the time}
Labels: classroom moments, Kids today, speechless
