The Moops Day 2

So I've had the moops for two days now. If you don't know what the moops are, go watch Seinfeld, it'll educate you and just generally brighten your day. They've been brought on by things, not just by accident. Yesterday it was a combination of having a pretty boring week (hence my lack of good blog material) and a slightly disappointing talk with the boss. Today it was something that happened at school.

So I help at the American Co-Op on Fridays. Right now there are only 6 kids. I don't teach. They have DVDs of teachers that were recorded at some Bob Jones-ish private school in Florida. Judging by the way the teachers dress and look, you'd think they were recorded in the mid-80s, and they may have been.

As a side note, before I get into the story, for the Bible classes and oral reading assigments, the kids have to memorize and read out of the King James Version.
Come on people, let it go. I understand it was THE Bible for hundreds of years, but really, no one talks like that anymore. Kids don't understand it. Sometimes it sounds less like the kids are reading Scripture and more like they're reading some Germanic cookbook with a lisp. Let them read something a little more contemporary!

Anyways, so back to the story. So of the 6 kids, 4 are alone in little rooms by themselves with a TV and a DVD player, also known as their "teacher." For hours on end they listen to these people ramble on about whatever with the only real interaction being when they have a question or when it's time to take a quiz. To prove how little the supervisors do, I read "The Old Man and the Sea" before lunch today and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" after. So needless to say, in the mid morning, when the power went out, I was excited. The two younger kids were just starting spelling, which I could handle (since it's on a fourth grade level) and the older guy I was over had just started science, which I happen to know a lot of thanks to Time Magazine's Public College of the Year in 2000, Clemson University. So I thought this would be a golden opportunity for me to do a little teaching, help the kids learn, let them have a little fun, and get them out of their own little dugeons. So I decided that we would play Yahtzee, with me quizzing them as we went. Unfortunately, I'm not the only supervisor in the school, and not all supervisors agree with this type of approach to learning. The other lady (who happens to be the mother of two of the kids I was with) came in. She came in the room and said, "So, are you guys going to get started on homework?" I said, "No, I'm going to do something with them." To which she replied, "Oh, you mean you are telling them their homework." And I said, "No, I mean we were going to do an activity together." At which point you could see in this lady's face sheer terror.

Now look, I know what the contingency plan is. The power goes out pretty regularly here. I guess that's to be expected in a "developing country." We've talked about what should happen in a time like this, and I know that protocol says they are just to stay in the torture chambers and do homework. But come on. Here is a Kudzu League educated, strapping young 23 year old biologist offering your son very personalized tutoring in an interactive environment. You'd think this lady would be all over it. Nope. Instead, she was visibly flushed in the face as she told me that they should be in their rooms doing work, not out here playing games. It's not like we weren't going to study as we played. I had the books opened in front of me already. Let your kids enjoy it for once. The real kicker to me is that today they started a weekly thing where on Fridays instead of study hall all the kids have to give a short presentation of something they did in class that week to the rest of the kids. Why? Because they're too isolated. Well what the heck. I'm un-isolating them and letting them learn in a different and more exciting way.

So all these thoughts are racing through my mind. My usual rant is coming together in a mental outline and slowly starting to take shape as key words and phrases are finding their proper homes in the places where the verbal jab will deliver the most effective blow. I was primed and ready to do what I do best, to state my opinion. However something else crept up inside of me. It snuck up behind me as I sat there in that chair. It wasn't a shock or a fright, but more like an old friend coming up and wrapping their arm around your shoulders with a smile and a "How ya doing?" It slowly started to take over for my tirade like a warm blanket being pulled up to your chin slowly on a chilly night when you're half asleep. Maybe you can blame the moops or maybe it was a product of it. Whatever caused it, I was and am glad my old friend Apathy came back.

I just sat back in my chair and said, "Whatever man," in that solid and thick Southern accent that only a man from Piedmont can muster up, and then, only when accompanied by a slight fling of the hands skyward and then around to the back of the head. So I sat back, legs outstretched, hands behind my head, and listened as they were given their assignments and ordered back to their rooms. You could see the joy fading from their faces and they slowly made their way back to their solitary confinement with muttered "yes m'am"-s. The lady took one look at me but didn't say a word as she left the room. All I could do was look at the clock, shrug my shoulders, and say out loud to no one in particular, "Ain't it time for lunch yet?"

In other news, our English teaching company is legal now and should be offering classes in about a month. Praise God. My friend Mark Win sent me an email containing a great quote from D.A. Carson that was in line with my view on expectations. Thanks D.A. And Clemson plays Wake Forest tomorrow. We've lost the last two times we have went there to play, but this is, in my opinion, the best Tiger team we have fielded in a long time. To say I'm nervous may be too strong but to say I am confident would be too. I'm "cautiously optimistic." I'm calling for a 35-20 win and hoping it's not that close. And I've made it half way through Ramadan without being physically assaulted or verybally abused. At least I think so. I have no idea what that guy was saying to me in the market the other day. And speaking of having no idea, I had another "meat" sandwich the other day. Again, I have no idea what it was, but it was good.

Go Tigers! No donkeys.