tonight was the amicale gathering for the school staff. it's cool that everyone gets along for the most part. unfortunately i didn't get the little king figurine baked into my cake. i even had two pieces and now have no room for dinner, but who cares.
speaking of getting along, i kind of rocked the boat with some of my students today in class. i told them that when i walk down through the halls or conduct a class, it seems like all the students get along pretty well. i've been wondering what was up-- at most american high schools, there are pronounced groups or cliques of people who do or don't like each other.
so i started asking questions: does everyone get along here? they told me no, of course not, there are groups of rich kids who act all cool and treat others like shit. (sounds familiar.) then i asked if anyone ever gets into fights here and they told me no, never. at other high schools, yes, but not here.
it was interesting because all the students in my classes really perked up and started talking. they were all interested in participating and telling me what they thought of their school and their classmates. after about 10 mintues opinions started rolling out-- people here are superficial and hypocrytical and stab you in the back. huh. even though that sucks i was glad to know that this high school is normal and not full of robots.
for the sake of conversation, i told other students what their classmates said, leaving out names, of course. what ensued was a mini war-- a discussion that quickly turned into french as some of the students tried to guess who said what and what exactly they said. they were pissed and i thought, oh dear, i've taken it too far... but it was interesting nonetheless. it was way more interesting than discussing american politics or whatever.