1. Today is the last Friday of our class!! Our time is absolutely winding down, and quickly! We reviewed the Figurative Language test students wrote on Wednesday and got back yesterday. Then we talked about the value our society places on young people their age – what role do they play in general and what responsibilities are given to them? We read an essay together called “Where the Child is Father of the Man” which was a sort of personal essay where the author reflected on his observations of the very different type of upbringing people in Indonesia get. They have a much more “communal” type of upbringing, where children are raised and cared for by everyone, and not just the primary parents. The benefit of this, he believes, contributes to their generally happier nature – they live with less but appreciate a great deal more.
2. Students then were placed in two work groups and asked to collaborate for responses to a question sheet. One person had to be chosen to be their group speaker, but they all had to write down their answers to the questions. Group work is something we’ll have to work to develop more next year!
3. Then we talked about the results from the interviews students did in the last few days. Only three out of the ten weren’t finished the activity, which I thought was impressive. The majority seemed to have benefited from having been given the task of sitting down with someone they care about who maybe has some bit of wisdom to pass on. They each shared a thing or two that they learned from the lesson and we wrote them on the board. This is all rhetoric, for now, though; it’ll make sense one day when they’ve experienced a bit more of the “real world”, except if you listen to John Mayer, there is no real “real world”.

Listen to the lyrics of this song and see if you agree.

Here are the lyrics too – there is some real wisdom in what he writes about…

Welcome to the real world”, she said to me
Condescendingly
Take a seat
Take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I’d like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you’ve got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits
Maybe transfers
They read all the books but they can’t find the answers
And all of our parents
They’re getting older
I wonder if they’ve wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you got to rise above

I am invincible
As long as I’m alive

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you’ve got to rise above

I just can’t wait til my 10 year reunion
I’m gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for