Some students are focused on literature, some on engineering, some on sales. They all have different requirements for how much English they need to know and different standards for grading, all of which is -not surprisingly- confusing for me at times. I work with 7 different teachers, but I tend to teach separately from them in small groups, as I mentioned earlier. Some teachers give me free reign to teach what I want. Others have requests. Some of these requests arise organically - for instance, I was discussing the regional differences in culture, attitude, way of life, etc. in various parts of the US and a teacher asked me to create a fun quiz/game for the students to test their knowledge of US geography, ,history and culture. I divide them into teams and ask them 30 questions about the US - 5 Overview questions, and 5 questions each about the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West. This gives me the opportunity to teach about the settlers from England, Native Americans, the western frontier, various wars (Civil War, Mexican-American War, etc.), food - of utmost interest to the French-, current politics, and more.
Sometimes when I am teaching I get questions that take me back. For instance, just yesterday I was teaching about Thanksgiving when one of the older BTS students said, “May I ask you a question - what do you think of the gun laws in the United States?” This is such a tough issue for me, and something really difficult for French teenagers and adults alike to understand. I explained that the Constitution is the original, founding document on which our government is based, and in this document, it states that citizens are allowed to own guns. I explained that the Constitution can be changed, but it is extremely difficult, and it is typically to add to new laws, not to reverse old ones. That being said, each state has different laws in regard to guns, some of which are more strict than others. Chicago was the last place in America that has a total handgun ban, and that was reversed by the Supreme Court last summer, citing that it is unconstitutional. I also explained that I personally believe guns are too easy to own and there should be much stricter licensing laws. The student then cited the movie Bowling for Columbine, in which a boy and his mother walk into a supermarket and buy a gun. I replied, “Yes, that is sad and shouldn’t happen. That might have taken place in a state such as Texas, and I haven’t been there, but anywhere I have lived, the notion of buying a gun in a supermarket is ridiculous and it would be impossible.”
Then back to Thanksgiving…which in fact, I wasn’t completely prepared to explain. It went a little something like this: Well, when the pilgrims came from England, they met the Native Americans. And there was some war, then peace, then war again, back to peace, back to war, and then a big meal where everyone ate turkey. I tried to enforce the idea that Thanksgiving is about coming together with family and/or friends, and it is about giving thanks. It is not a religious holiday, but an American one, honoring the tradition of coming together from different backgrounds. I tried to get each student to say something they were thankful for, but they had a difficult time with this concept. Several needed lots of prompting and finally said family or sports. Good enough.
Another funny thing about teaching is this: I feel terrible giving bad grades, even when the students deserve it. Kalli or Dan, if you’re reading this, how do you deal with this? I am bereft.
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