This morning my colleagues and I got to host 120 screaming high school students. We split them into manageable groups of 30 each and sent them to four sessions, each one consisting of a talk and activity about a different country.
At the beginning of the day, they got a worksheet where they had to list two things that they learned in each session which they had to turn in at the end of the day to us. We’re going to photocopy them and send them off to their teachers.
The following are what we call “howlers.” They’re called that because they make you howl with laughter. I know I probably shouldn’t be posting these online, but they’re anonymous and I kind of dare anyone to pipe up and admit they wrote any of these.
Without further ado:
What we learned about Argentina:
- “Penguins get really confused and end up in Rio sometimes.”
- “It’s down on North South America.”
- “Most people are from eurupien (sic) decen (sic).”
- “Coronary: the peso.”
What we learned about the Czech Republic* and Germany:
- “Germans aren’t very proud to be German.”
- “In Europe you didn’t wear deoderant (sic) and take a bath only once or twice a year.”
- “Bavarians are extreme Catholics.” (I’m totally going to suggest this one to ESPN.)
- (under a heading labeled “Germany”) “Did not fight in World War II.”
- “Marks invented capitalism.”
- “Berlin is cool and divided by Berlin Wall in 80s.”
- “Enough nukes to blow up the world 50 times.”
*frequently spelled “Check” even though it was right up there on the board in the front of the room.
What we learned about India:
- “Bollywood is there.”
- “Most movies have songs.”
- “Snake charming is a more touristy attraction.”
- “1 dollar equals 41 rubies.”
What we learned about Egypt:
- “They live (sic) sugar and have a complicated alphabet.”
- “Tile making is fun to do sometimes.”
- “Kyro is the capital.”
- “[word that looks like 'buffalo'**] are cool.”
- “Taxi drivers use the horn a lot.”
** Note that we never discussed buffalo in the session. I’m pretty good at reading bad handwriting, but have no idea what this word is supposed to be.
I know that anytime high school kids get out into the “real” world, the learning stops and it’s just a fun day, no matter how hard you try to make things educational. I managed to piece together what was really said by reading enough of the evaluations, but it’s always intriguing how things get interpreted by people who are only half paying attention.
At any rate. I plan to actively avoid the news media until about 9 PM tomorrow evening, which will be when the polls close on the west coast. I can’t take it anymore, and there’s no reason that I have to. I’ve already voted. In 36 hours, this will all be over, one way or t’other …
