Gen is Hot!

[brandy-painter.livejournal.com]

I had to share this with you all because I thought you would appreciate it when no one else I know will. I just started reading The Thief with the 4th-6th grade literature class that I teach at our homeschool co-op. This group consists of 7 kids (5 boys, 2 girls) ages 10-12. They had to read the first three chapters this week and we started discussing today. We were making character charts and, of course, Gen is the first character we start discussing and this transpires:

Me: Who can tell me a word they think describes Gen?
Girl 1: HOT!
Me (thinking she might mean that literally being only a fourth grader, Gen does complain about being hot while riding): What do you mean by that?
Girl 1: You know like, that guy is SO HOT.
Silence-all five boys looking at her like she dropped down from Jupiter.
Boy 1: How on earth would you know that????
Girl 1: You can just tell.
Girl 2: You sort of can. It think he probably is hot.
More silence while I try not to laugh my head off and 4 of the boys continue to look incredulous, one I could tell was thinking
Thinking Boy: You know, the girls at that Inn they stopped at do seem to like him a lot once he is clean and smiling at them.
Girl 1:   THAT'S. BECAUSE. HE. IS. HOT.

I LOVE MY STUDENTS

Prior to this, when we were  discussing their homework, they were talking about how much they loved Gen even if all he was doing was traveling around. When we finished listing words that describe him the ones they came up with (lazy, whiny, etc.) did not describe a person you would want to hang out with. I circle this on the board and ask them if they thought they would like a person described this way. They all said no. I then asked why they had just been talking about how they like Gen so much if he is all those things. One of them said: "Because he is awesome." Another said, "I think he's awesome too but we probably like him because he's the one telling the story."

AGAIN-I LOVE MY STUDENTS!

Comments

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Well, My sister, Bookworm and I, and at least three others I know of, plus you!

It's funny that you mentioned about pajamas, when I was taking English 101, I wrote my final argument paper about homeschooling, and about 2 weeks before it was due, I saw all these posters plastered all around the school touting 'Pajama Day'...Where all the students were encouraged to come to class in their pajamas. (Thank goodness I didn't have class that day (; ) Nobody at my school has the right to pick on Homeschoolers for going to school in their pajamas. Ever again.