kids' writing: part 2

instead of writing my thesis, i decided to scan some work from my kids. i am so seriously avoiding my thesis...procrastination at its best. every thursday, my students have a comprehension "test" about the story of the week. it's a mix of short answer and multiple choice. it's almost a guarantee that there will be at least one amusing response per week. a few weeks ago, we read a story about a guy who explored the arctic regions and students had to respond to the following question: "Would you like to live in the Arctic regions? Explain why or why not."

here are some of their responses.



according to the first kid, guns are necessary for survival in cold weather against wild arctic animals.

sometimes, kids will say things in class dicussions that have very little to do with what we're actually talking about. sometimes, they do that with their writing too. the second kid talks about skateboarding, magic tricks, and going down a big slide. i'm not sure what to say... i mean, i showed them pictures of glaciers, greenland, arctic regions. i'm still trying to figure out where magic tricks came from. he really is this random in real life.




both of these kids understand that the arctic is freezing cold. most of the kids say they would rather not live in the arctic because of the climate. it's always funny to see kids' reasoning. the potential of eating raw meat "grouses" one kid out. the other one has already figured out that while he certainly wouldn't choose to go to the arctic, he wouldn't mind wishing something else there.



still others would rather go to the arctic and live in freezing cold weather than come to school. the idea of sledding and building igloos is a much bigger draw than coming to class. truth be told, i'd rather go sledding and build igloos too.

there are a handful of kids have a lot of "personality" and sometimes, it shows up when they write. this particular kid aspires to be an actress. she already has the "drama queen" thing down - "i'm to young to die!"


the rest of these are just randomly amusing...




the second to last one - this kid thinks girls = disaster.

the spectrum of emotions

i'm not sure if i knew that i could feel the whole spectrum of emotions in a matter of one weekend. i got to watch blades of glory on friday night with my roommates, which was pretty darn hilarious. it was pretty much a fun, light, and care-free evening with fish tacos homemade by gilbert snuck into the theater for me.

saturday morning was dim-sum and enjoyable time with friends. later that afternoon, i went to a memorial service for grace, an amazing woman whose life was marked by fruitfulness and God's presence, as evident by the 1000 or so people in attendance. the first thought (i'm sure it was the same thought of many others) was to wonder if my life would be remembered or marked in the same way. how tragic that i didn't think it would, at least not right now. the next thought was how inspired i felt to live that kind of life, marked by the presence of God and bearing such fruit. my thoughts then turned to the church, how it should be so undeniably filled with God's presence and fruitfulness. i went from sad, to inspired, and back to sad in realizing how far i, and the church, am from that vision.

afterwards, i couldn't stop thinking about it all. i didn't know her well, but for the times i was around her, it was so easy to see that she indeed had this radiance, that came from God, just as the pastor described. because she reflected Jesus so beautifully, people were drawn to her, but you know, really to Jesus. that's the prayer i have for my life and church, to reflect Jesus so beautifully that people are drawn to Him.

so what does all that look like? i thought i knew, but on days like today, i'm not so sure. when the message at church makes me cry and God takes the opportunity to pinpoint my own selfishness as well as the ugly side of my own anger - regardless of my feeling like it's righteous. we are so very wretched, yet called beloved by God. how can we look at each other in any other way than how God sees all of us? the difficulty is to truly care and love others as God does - to deal with and treat people as he does, even when he is angry with us and upset at us because of disobedience.

there seems to be much to think about.