I had my last tutorials of the term today. The department secretary “let slip” that all my evaluations so far were perfect scores. YAY! However, I got an even better prize.
Having noticed that I have a fairly raving coffee habit (I make about two trips to the Tim’s down the hall from class every Monday night in our lecture for a large triple-triple), my students presented me with a lovely indigo Laurier mug that they had all chipped in for. This was accompanied by a cute little Snow Flake Fun! stencil kit (the most un-Christmas holiday thing they could find).
At first I told them I couldn’t accept gifts, naturally, but they insisted that I take it. They had all put a few bucks in, so they couldn’t all use it, and they were sure they couldn’t get their money back, they claimed. So, gracefully, I accepted it, blathering something about how this wasn’t going to help their grades, and they shouldn’t take this as any type of reinforcement of some unhealthy addiction.
I’m kind of emotional over it, actually.
I might have complained about them some, but they really are great kids. I’ll miss each and every one of them. But, now, I have a reminder every time I have my morning cuppa’.
Now to do up that Rasta presentation or I am dead Ital, and I-and-I will have to meet again in the After Life… Or in Mexico where I will go by the name Juanita Sanchez, and will have joined the circus as a sword swallower to avoid the shame of having bombed out of PhD…
Either one is fine, but I prefer passing, if given the choice.
14 comments:
Hey! Nothing like that ever goes on in my classroom!
Original title for this one was "To Jew, With Love." But I thought it was too subtle...
(Sorry that was completely a lie. I don't know what gets into me sometimes...)
From now on whenever I give any of my Jewish friends a gift, I will have to say "To Jew, With Love." Mostly to see the looks on their faces. I imagine slightly furrowed brows and a glance, quickly replaced by glee at having been presented with a gift.
Awww.
Yes... I wonder...
I think we all need to do this as an experiment and then come back with our findings. (i.e. Subject # 1: Laugh. Subject # 2: Eventually laughed. Subject # 3: Gives long winded speech on why "Lean on Me" is better than "To Sir, With Love." Subject # 4: Doesn't seem to notice. Subject # 5: Punches out my lights... And so forth.)
You have your projects, class.
Well, sadly, I seem to be in a dry spell. Of allll the Jewish kids I know on Internet, I only saw two of them since I became curious about this scenario I want to make.
Ideally, I would be presenting a gift while saying the line. However, as I am a shut-in, I hardly really ever see anyone to present with a gift, regardless of religious persuasion or whatever.
So, I just drew a picture to send as a gift, with "To Jew, With Love" written across the top.
One of them said "awwww <3" and the other reacted this way: "That picture you sent is pure, unmitigated HORROR. I dislike it. Scary stuff."
However, upon further analysis, it turns out that they were both reacting solely to the picture I drew, and didn't really notice or care about the line addressing them at the top.
Furthermore, the negative reaction came about because I had drawn a picture of me holding a cake, and that boy is frighteningly allergic to dairy and eggs and cakes and that stuff.
My results are not conclusive so far. I think I should stop using that picture though, as it clouds their true feelings, I think.
I will press onward!
Yes, it is important not to taint the results with an inappropriate gift.
For example, saying the line, and presenting them with a Swastika armband, would have a different effect then, say, giving them a cute little kittie to play with.
Important suggestion. Thanks.
Press on, scientists!
I have now presented the image to a third, while I was on the phone with him. He was all AWWW OMG THANK YOU and made it his desktop background.
So I will say that most Jewish people enjoy being called Jew, but only if it is accompanied with love. And possibly also if it is accompanied with a picture of me holding a rose and a cake.
I can't really say that I mind the term, though my students are often extremely worried about using it in their papers when they know I'll be reading it...
"the Jewish people"... "Persons of the Jewish Faith"... "Followers of Judaism"...
My Favourite? "Jewish-Americans", "Judeo-Americans," or "Semite-Americans." To which I always respond: "What about Jews in Canada??"
They come up with multiple ways to try to dodge it. Funny, but points more to the way they were raised then to the nature of Jews. We don't generally mind it, because we weren't raised hearing it as a verb: "To Jew somebody out of something...", unless it was from someone you really wouldn't expect anything better from, like substitute gym teachers.
So, this has been productive, I think. IF Jews mind the term at all, cute pictures of cakes change their mind, or at least distract them... Very nice.
Proving yet again that Jews generally enjoy cake more than they fear taunts.
Well, the Jew I spoke to on the phone tonight said something about how it's okay to call a Jew a Jew if you are their friend and are meaning it sweetly. Or something to that effect.
I am guessing it is because he, personally, has had run-ins with Neo-Nazi types, so it is a word that he has heard charged with all kinds of mean.
I personally find it catchier and easier on the ears than saying "the Jewish people" and all those you listed. But, it really is something that most people I know flinch at if you say it loudly in public.
... That's weird now that I think about it.
In a sick way, I am proud and humbled to be part of something so mysterious that its very word has such power.
I use the word with pride, although I have been called "Jew" in unpleasant ways before, even by Irish relatives and once by a teacher in Junior High.
All at once, it links Jews everywhere with Judea, but also with the whole variety of Jewish immigrant and diaspora experience.
It is one of those words in which rests an eternity of human imagination. Its use provokes pride, disgust, mythic worlds, a people, a Nation, a G-d, and every other type of passion, mentality and politics.
It changes and migrates, yet it maintains an almost universal and enduring character. Three little letters, one small syllable, and an entire world of meaning.
Like the Jews themselves, it comes with many different forms of life, and has been translated a million times, but it also holds an integrity of its own.
If I were more prone to mysticism, that word would be an object of my meditation.
If you think about it, "Jewish" sounds like it would mean "sort of like a Jew, but not entirely." Like if you are feeling "kind of sickish" or "hungryish." Or other words you sometimes put ish at the end of.
"Are you a Jew?"
"Well, no. Well, I mean I'm Jewish.. but not entirely Jewy, you know?"
Ah, then it is a perfect way to describe myself! I am part Irish, but I'm also Jew-ish...
My mother, on the other hand, has no Gentile blood, and is therefore Jewite... or perhaps a Jewly... or maybe even Jewous.
I think we may be on to something here. The word clearly needs more attention.
Hey, do you think the Irish are called Irish because they have that reputation of having firey tempers and are sort of like "ire"?
Ire-ish?
PS - "Jewous" made me think of "jealous." Perhaps if you are jealous of Jews you have Jewousy.
So an Irishman who wants to be a Jew would be green with Jewousy??
Too much.
Again, though with the Irish they are Ire-like (-ish), but not fully.
Jeesh. Are any of my componants whole to begin with???
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