If most of those who read here are like me, this work is a real meditation. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. Right? It’s like we teach and so we think about our teaching. Way too much for me. Esp. when I wake up. I just want to wake up regular, but I wake up with insights about this work.
Anyway, today’s insight is just so simple. It is in opposition to all those intellectual CI leaders who know so much. I say to them, “I don’t know anything about all that stuff and I don’t care. My goal is not language gains in my learners. If my kids can just be happy that is all I want. Because I feel that if my kids are happy they will learn.”
So I develop strategies that lead to smiles and laughter, as per:
“Come boy, and pour for me a cup
Of old Falernian. Fill it up
With wine, strong, sparkling, bright, and clear;
Our host decrees no water here.
Let dullards drink the Nymph’s pale brew,
The sluggish thin their blood with dew.
For such pale stuff we have no use;
For us the purple grape’s rich juice.
Begone, ye chilling water sprite;
Here burning Bacchus rules tonight!”
The message of this metaphor is that we can feel happiness in our classrooms, we can, and that is what I want to say. We can feel happy all the time in those dark prisons, if we just quit worrying about all the bullshit. Language teaching is easy, if we would just let it be! We can do it!
Related:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18EAqHx2lMk