2001-09-05 - 5:25 p.m.
Last night I taught my first adult education class. After two days of conversing with junior high students about siblings, favorite sports, and whether or not they liked school, I found talking to the adult students to be a real pleasure. The class is a supplementary job for me (thus bringing supplementary income!) and I'll teach it every Tuesday night from 7-9. In theory, it's one hour of free conversation and one hour of text book work. Last night I had 4 students -- a 22 year old woman and her mother, a school nurse, and a 67 year old man who told me he was there for "gymnastics of the mind." I did a more advanced version of my self-introduction, explaining phrases like "fishing town," and "crabbing town." One of the students asked me what I studied in college. Sociology -- well, what does that mean? I explained it as the study of social problems, such as racism, sexism, and homelessness. I explained the concept of discrimination, and at the point that I found myself writing "wheelchair accessible" on the board, I almost rolled my eyes at the "Vassar-ness" of it all. One of my students asked, "would you say 'blind accessible'?" I was impressed. One student asked me to explain the difference between "trip," "travel," and "journey." It took a while to explain how one could say "I had a great trip, but I hate traveling!" The junior high work will be brain-numbing, but the adult class seems like it will keep me on my toes. I'm already looking forward to the next one. And, I realized today as I was making a mock menu for the next class, my spelling is going. I actually wrote "burger's"! If I ever tell you to "please have pleasure time," kindly suggest that it is time for me to come home.
