We Can Learn from the Kids too...

We Can learn New and GOOD Ways from the Street Rascals too...

I love languages and it has been my hobby to explore and learn more about word origins and word history... Etymology has always fascinated me...So, when I was studying English literature in the university...I registered to several language courses... 

Beautiful adventure...into the realm of history and projections for the future...

Two factual concepts have remained with me...

• language is a breathing and living entity and it evolves in time...and space too...             Yesterday I visited an older teacher...and while discussing they mentioned the world villa...Actually he said: "now the old village is transformed and row upon row of villas have been built..." I did not dare to digress, he was in talking mood and i have too much respect for him, and ask do you know how the world villa originated...or better evolved...?                 The word "villa" has evolved from "villain" and it originally denoted the abode where the "villain" resided...                                                                                                                       The "villain" was the highwayman who robbed and kidnapped people on the highways...So people banished them from the cities and they lived on the outskirts of cities (suburbs...?) and since they had the money, albeit from robberies and kidnappings..., they had specious and luxurious villas...                                                                                                                   So originally "villa" was the abode of bad people...But now it ie the dwelling of the rich and famous... It has shed its original bad connotation and sensitized into the modern day positive image of the "villa"...
• Now let me digress, it just occurred to me that  may be the evolution of the word "villa" is an intentional one and ties the "villains" of the past, the highwayman, to the "villains" of the present day - the rich and the famous...                                                                                 It is ironic and funny... Once I complete this blog post I will research this connection...That will be my entertainment of the day...That will keep my brain agitated and alive... Great...!
• The second factual concept is that the slang which is developed on campuses and in street corners evolve and get absorbed into the main stream and eventually become another form of English idiomatic structure... An easy and trite example will be the word "cool"...             It originated in street corners and then evolved into the mainstream... Also the greeting "hey"...replaced the old fashioned "Good Day..." And modern classics like Cather in the Rye elevated the spoken slang into respectable literature...

Why this lengthy introduction...?

1. Education...After all my blog has that intrinsic value to educate and crumble the four walls of the structured classroom and open up the Global Village for me...That's my reward for retiring from four-walled-education system...

2. I want to draw attention to the "fist-pump"... My students always got a kick whenever I went along with their playfulness and greeted them with a "fist-bump"- props... 
Indeed it was fun and developed a closer and more intimate understanding between the kids and myself...also it told them that they may trust me and that I will help...
So besides the new words in our language, we can introduce new ways in our customs and way of living...
We should not always condemn the ways and means and the talk of the street smarts... Pay attention to them...Most probably we can learn good and healthy ways from them too...
Do not dismiss the funny ways of the street...have a second look and think...

Sweaty palms, vice-like grips or the insufferable limp hand may be the least of your hand-shaking worries.

And now I am hoping that this fist-bump -props- will go mainstream and be adopted by all...and be the respectable way of greeting...

Dr. Dave Whitworth and PhD student Sara Mela

The doctor says it is healthier than hand shakes or high fives...

It is good photo op....Good politics...

At his first inauguration students installed a screen and brought their lap top and we followed the pomp and circumstances and speeches all they...

I never realized that he is more interested in photo ops than solving world problems... 

He just grins while Ukraine and Gaza are burning....

After all, he compounded the injustice and all the wars that Bush had initiated...

        

                             It is fun ..............and it has a tie too...looks respectable...

....And few-line history and few terms for fist-bump

A fist bump (also called dap, pound, fist pound, brofist, donsafe, spudding, fo' knucks, box, Bust, pound dogg, props, Bones, respect knuckles, bumping the rock …

Fist bumping first appeared in America in the 1940s, as biker gangs were becoming popular in southwestern areas of the United States. Motorcyclists sitting next to each other at traffic lights would be unable to perform a proper handshake, due to riding stance, so a quick bump of closed fists was an easier way to greet a fellow rider at a stop.

***

When I was still a classroom teacher it annoyed me when a student pretended a fake smile…On the other hand, I was genuinely happy when a student was indeed happy and smiled from the heart…Like my friend “Visionary Determination.”

Faking a smile just made the student look "stupid" and phony... and most of the time the female students faked a smile...I am not sure why, but the boys were more genuine and spontaneous...

When the  smile is phoney and it will demean you and attempt to demean me..too..

Is he laughing at us... or may be just barely tolerating our follies...? Enjoy his smile...and decide for yourself...

                       Is he mocking....?                               ....Or may be not...!

I am not sure where the Hollywood actors stand... But I think that he is just acting...

In the classroom the fake smile and the grin... always irritated me...I wanted the smack the smirk out of the face of the student...But then...They are allowed their stupid grin...but I am not allowed to smack them...

It is the law...

Is he annoying or entertaining....?

Whichever the case he is making money by his ways and means...

I am sure some "funny" students have attempted to imitated this geek...but imitated just the face and of course ignored the brain...

When I am writing this, there are so many faces with phony smiles in front of me...

The male students are brutes most of the time...and resort to physical violence....

The female students are gossipy and smirk faced clowns ... and stab the teachers behind their back...They run to their moms...to the admin and rat...and Ratting looks nicer if you exaggerate and make things up...

Oh...How happy am I to be liberated from the classroom walls... I was so happy that I even left some of my personal items there...I just wanted to leave...I just had enough of the gossipy female and pretentious male students ...and the teachers who just stuck to the book and have no imagination... and the admin who just refuses to rise up to the challenge and wallow in their policing ways...instead of educating the kids...