Friday, October 19, 2007

Onechan-sensei

So the other day on the ride back from school/day care, with both girls in car seats in the back, out of the blue onechan tries to teach imoto about the best way to cover your mouth when you sneeze, a fitting topic as both have been dealing with the sniffles for about two weeks now. She carefully explained how it's better to sneeze into your elbow rather than your hands, as you can pass along germs to other people much more easily the latter way. I reminded her about it this morning accidentally when I was telling the tsuma this story, and she proceeded to repeat the lesson, complete with the big idea, the rationale, a demonstration, and an attempt to move imoto's arm in the prescribed manner (this last part didn't go over so well). It's good to see she's learning something useful (about teaching as well as avoiding pandemics) at her hoikuen. As the elder child, I've followed in my dad's footsteps profession-wise. Now I'm wondering if onechan is predisposed to be a professor, too. I don't know whether to be proud or worried.

5 comments:

Bill Benzon said...

Ah, but you don't want to do that if you're square-dancing, as that involves a lot of intimate elbow-to-elbow contact.

The Constructivist said...

Besides appreciating this comment for both its pedagogical and linkological utility, it also gives me the chance to complain that when we did square dancing in gym class in central NY (clearly in the dark ages), our sadistic instructor always paired me (the shortest boy) with Heidi (the tallest girl). Thanks, Bill!

Bill Benzon said...

Speaking of sniffles, guess what I've had for two weeks? Do you think it could be (honorary) avuncular sympathy, or its symmetrical converse?

The Constructivist said...

Contrapositive? Man, it's been far too long since that intro to philosophy course where we wrote a 1-page response to a different Alice in Wonderland excerpt each week!

The key thing is, get better soon, the girls are almost over it!

The Constructivist said...

Bill, thanks for the tip! I've been sick half of November and part of December, and now my cough is among the lovely ladies.... If only we all followed onechan's teachings regularly!