Black and Bluegrass

Seems I overdid the weight room and am now am suffering from some kind of rotator cuff injury, which makes even hoisting a cold one painful. Guess that means I'll have to lay off the high heat and pitch 'em junk, not hard for a bass player cum mando wannabe. hehe.* Serves me right for rushing through my workout instead of savoring the smell, discomfort and constantly too-loud pop trash music you might here in work-out facilities.

Who in the world decided to make those idiots rich? Well, quite possibly the answer lies, or lays, or sits or sets, all around me here in Spring School, which, for those of us who weren't paying attention during class, is like Summer School except it happens, yes, dear, reader, in the spring, the season in which a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

So what does a young lady's thoughts turn to? I certainly would like somebody to answer me that one!

Anyhow, for the next two weeks I get to spend an additional 3 hours here at school so that I can make enough money to screw around this summer, which has at least two really really cool festivals I'll be able to make--HickoryFest out in Wellsboro and the AFBA small fest at WindGap. I'll have to write about those two things separately at some point in the future, there is so much to say about the unique and insane blend of inanity at those festivities. I'll try to define them both in two words. For the AFBA, I would pick "pick" and "Beer". And for HickoryFest I would pick "pick, Hippie and not-beer"**.

Anyhow, I have the pleasure of teaching five subjects in one room with fourteen students who have failed everything from Earth Science--"Say this here trashcan is the Earth, see, and pretend that orange over there is like a meteor or something"- to Environmental Science--"say that trashcan over there is like the ocean and that orange is some endangered whale.." to biology--"so the orange is really a cell, and the rind is like the membrane, except it's not fat and orange, and then the juice when I squeeze this puppy would be like the cytoplasm, except gooopier like a booger, kinda.."

I tell ya, teaching can be a real joy. So these kids seem fine, a little rammy, but that's what being a teenager is all about, is it not? Come to think of it, most bluegrassers I know are in a kind of perpetual childhood. I mean, what grown up goes camping out, makes whooping sounds when the sun goes down, bays at the moon amd pees in the woods?

Or maybe that's dogs I'm thinking of.

No matter. This music certainly keeps you young at heart, and playful. Don't let me forget to say playful!

SO I asked the kids why they failed all these various subjects, and at least five of them said "He gave me a 64!" with genuine shock, like that last point was worth a million bucks. In a minute I'll ask them how many of them had men for teachers. Men teachers love to put the smack down. Makes 'em feel all manly, I guess. I'd ask now, but they are working nicely becuase I asked them nicely, which seems to work for me.

Makes me wonder why some of my mates never try it. Yeah, so if I asked them, they'd be hollering answers out and talking about it and asking questions, whcih proves that they really aren't uninterested in learning. Just depends on the topic. Oh--and I bet lots of these kids have ADD, which, they say, never happens during the summer.

Oaky..here goes an instant survey:

How many of you had male teachers for science and failed?
13 out of 13
How many males and females in the class?
8 girls, 5 boys

How many of you have ever been failed another subject?
6
How many have been failed by female teachers?
5
Top subjects to fail for spring schoolers?
5 for math.
Top reason to fail (One word only!)
homework
I'm lazy
teacher doesn't like me
style of teaching
attendance

So there you have it!
No gender bias here!
well--it's spring, and we are outties! Yippie!
and happy Friday to me!
*I said a latin word!
** there are three kinds of people in this world--those who can count and those who can't.
yeah boy!