Some funny kids

Today I didn't have to work! Well, I didn't have to be at school working. I woke up late, attempted to blow-dry my hair after tips from Camille, and treked over to a new coffee place in Renton to grade. The blowdrying actually seemed to work, yay! And, the new coffee shop is great! It's got a high table that I can spread out on, good coffee, yummy goodies, a flat-screen TV playing CNN and jazz music in the background.

I have graded 60 essays (go me!) and some papers from Foundations of World History. Some of them made me chuckle outloud so I felt like sharing.

In Foundations of World History we did a day on how aspects of early civilizations still plague modern governments. We took China as an example, comparing how China tried to manage the flooding of the Yangtze River in Ancient China and today, resulting in the Three Gorges Dam. It's crazy, huge. It creates 40% more power than any other dam in the world. Anyway, the kids did a role play. Some of them were farmers and some of them were officials. They were all responding to the positives and negatives of the dam. The dam was going to displace a lot of people (1.3 million), leaving behind their homes and farmland and the shrines of their ancestors, important to modern China like ancient China. Both the officials and farmers were asked to make a proposal and demands over what to do in this situation, taking on the role of their characters.

Here are how some of the groups responded (unedited):

My title: The Indignants
Farmers plan:
"Since we have heard that there are unknown cruel punishments for staying in our home we will unhappily move to the offered apartment. This tramatic move will put our already clinically depressed grandmother, who lost her husband a month ago, over the edge in to serious thoughts of suicide because she will loose her friends. Also, the dam will cover our families tombs with water making us unable to participate in the rituals that honor our ansestors. This inability will lead to great misfortune on our family. For your ignorant decision you will give us not only 5% of the value of the land but 10%. We need this extra money to secure our family in these times of unsaid horrors. Also if you do not give us more of the value of our prime, furtile land we will write letters to news companies all over the world telling companies all over the world about the depression and horrors the Chinese government has put on our poor little farming family. " (I'd say they definitely got into character...especially grandma, hehe)

My Title: The Mystics
Farmers:
Our family will:

• decide to move
• tell our ancestors that this is the only option
• ask them to give us a sign whether or not we should take them with us
• if they say yes, we will dig them up and bring them along
• consult ancestors b/c they control our future and we want to make them happy

There is a vase that is a family fase. It is a symbol. If the vase breaks, we will move because it symbolizes the family being broken apart. If the vase stays intact, the family stays, because we will be together.

My Title: The Thinkers

Officials: We're estimating there are about 65,000 families (about 20 people per family) and 23 provinces. To cut down on the cost, we will split the families into different provinces. 2,826 families will move to each province. To make them happier, we will provide each family with a house, a job opportunity for the father, and food for the first week. Each province will pay for these expenses. When the dam is built and the goods come through in trade, we will tax each good and give 5% of the taxes, split into 23 provinces, to each province (to repay them) for the next 5 years.

Reflection: I adore my freshmen.

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