Friday, March 23, 2007

6 Days to Go

What an excellent day! I am tired and feeling a bit anxious about the defense, but I had such a good experience in my Greek class today. Early in the first semester, I told my students of a seminary experience in which I parsed some verb in the book of Romans as a future subjunctive. Now, anyone who has taken a little Greek would know that there is no future subjunctive in Greek. I told my students this story as a way of disarming their fears about gaining mastery of all this material. Since then, one of my students (a young man I have quite a lot of affection for) has teased me about the future subjunctive. We've all had good laughs at my expense, which is great fun.

A few weeks ago I introduced the subjunctive mood to my students. Since doing that, this particular young man has come close to parsing verbs as future subjunctives. But today was the day! Today he suggested parsing a verb with those words I have been waiting to hear--future subjunctive. I banged on the table and exulted over his mistake like a three year old--Yes, I was very mature. My arms were raised in triumph as I proclaimed myself the king of the world. I have won, and my young apprentice has not.

So, it's a good day. . . .

1 comment:

Jim Ladd said...

YES!! The true joy of teaching is building them up and then laughing histerically when they fail!

Seriously, it is this self-deprecating and community culture you create that makes you an amazing teacher!