Who cares?

Irrational Fears

Taking a shower this morning, I thought, for whatever reason, about Tony's fear of taking showers.  His fear is irrational; it would seem, from my vantage point.  But putting myself in Tony's shoes, of course the fear is rational -- unknown things should be cause for fear.  Tony is also showing himself to a natural conservative (I read somewhere that children are natural conservatives wanting order and predictability) not wanting to change, what for him is an ideal setup:  taking a warm bath.  The other thought I have about this is how I can see what obvious irrationalities he has.  Would a being or another looking on me or man see what irrational fears we have for rational reasons?  For example, our fear of death.   Are we really fearing a good thing as in the case of Tony who doesn't want to take a shower?

 

The CPCC Congress

Talking about it with the students last night, I was told the thing was boring and not many were watching it.

 

A Day without Tony

Thursday, I got up and went to work so early, and then arrived home so late, that I didn't see Tony awake.  Now this occurrence is a good and bad thing.  You don't interact with the guy, but sometimes the interactions are not so ideal.  Also, Thursday evening, I wanted to see his reaction to some magazines I bought for him at Nanchang Market -- magazines about the Cars movie and the In the Night Garden T.V. show, and so I was very disappointed he was asleep.  But when he is asleep, he is an angel; when he is awake, he is sometimes like the devil.

 

Friday morning, I take him to preschool -- bonding time there.

 

Translator

The bane of my teaching existence is the self-appointed class translator.  They think they are helping their classmates but really they stop their classmates from being able to work out a word for themselves.  If students don't know a word, there is often a way to explain it to them in English that they do know.  Not willing to use this method, a student can be like someone trying to walk always being carried by someone else and wandering why they haven't improved their walking abilities.