15/07/10

This morning at morning announcements I asked a colleague to remind the students about science fair and invite those not participating to come support their classmates. One of my colleagues turned to me and said “Saturday isn’t really a good day because nobody wants to do things on the weekend. Couldn’t we change it to a different day?” I just stared (well, perhaps glared) at him for a second until another colleague quickly said “I think that all the work has already been done so it’s a little too late for that!”
I forgot to write this at the time, but in the days before 4th of July I was told some of my students that it was our independence day and that, just like all of their neighboring countries—South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania—we had been an English colony and it was because of this that we speak English. This just blew their minds. They think of America as this invincible superpower that produces all the good things in life: Michael Jackson, Beyonce, and Lil’ Wayne. The idea that we could have been a colony once, just like every country they are personally familiar with, and that we too fought for our independence just as they had was incredible to them.