Why is it, I asked my students, that you all cannot say...

[son byrnes]

In my conversation class with some Middle School pupils we had spent an entire week discussing and creating suitable dialogues about Sports. Students in general enjoy conversations about Sports.

As an ESL Teacher I have discovered that all ages find that Sports Talk is fun. Some girls and women feign disinterest but then no one in any of my classes has ever wanted or dared to appear to be asleep at the wheel no matter how dull the subject nor how often the general topic has found itself to again have emerged as a viable, doable thing in itself. Such is Sports!!

The Middle School classes were especially keen on Soccer. I explained American Football to them and they all thought it was okay but a bit rough. When I introduced Rugby they then saw that American Football was for weaklings and overweight idiots. I didn't say that but then no one really gives a hoot.

Anyway Rugby was really rough they decided and then I talked them into writing and presenting a conversation on the difference between the three somewhat similar Sports games. All of these Sports had some things in common. For example, each was played with a ball and there are many other aspects to consider as well when comparing and contrasting them besides the obvious superlatives: rough, rougher and roughest.

The students, and this was a class of 45 pupils, all got involved and spent considerable time practicing their dialogues. About 15 minutes later the presentations were ready. This was an hour and half class and no time was wasted. It is always surprising how inventive Middle School students will be when assigned a task that all can relate to with relative ease and lack of selfconsciousness.

All went well until the second to last presentation. Three boys and a girl began to talk about Hockey being even rougher than any of the other three suggested Sports: Soccer, Footbal and Rugby. Some of the other students in the classroom began to point out that the students were off topic talking about Hockey. They were protesting the inclusion of Hockey. I told them to continue nonetheless. Hockey was the roughest, and the most violent also, so I told the class to please be quiet and dignify the current presenters if only for the reason that Hockey is generally considered the roughest, toughest of all and belonged in the same grouping even though it was played with sticks and the players wore skates and played on ice - not a green field.

And then it happened. Another student stood up. He was in the back of the room. His face was colored red. He began shouting and gesticulating madly at the current presenters. He spluttered and screamed: "What da puck does that have to do with anything?"

Then the bell rang. The next day I had a new question to ask the Middle School students.

[/u]

[fluffyhamster]

I wonder what Wittgenstein would've had to say about all this.