Are We Pork?

I've been having blogger's block. I just didn't seem to find anything in my life interesting enough, things my children did cute enough or things my students said or did, dumb enough to write about. Until today! Today, I hit the motherload!

We are about to begin reading the novel Night by Elie Wiesel. It is a first hand account of surviving the Holocaust. As an introductory activity, I took six sheets of poster paper and hung them in different areas of the room, labeling them with a topic related to the book - "Judaism", "World War II", "The Nazis", "Jewish Ghettos", "Concentration Camps", and "Human Rights Violations throughout History". Students were put into groups of three of four, given a marker and asked to brainstorm what they knew about one of those six topics for two or three minutes before moving on to the next topic/sheet of paper. After all groups had written on every topic, they all sat down again and we discussed our results. Some of the postings, and discussions that ensued, were more than slightly entertaining. Keep in mind these are 11th and 12th graders:

While discussing the differences between Judaism and Christianity, I asked if anyone could tell me what the difference is between the Old and New Testaments in the Bible. One eager student raised his hand and very seriously proclaimed, "The Old Testament was written in the 1940's and the New Testament was written in 2008." Lucky us! What a historic time to be alive!

Later the same period, I asked if anyone knew about what it means to be Kosher. During that discussion, one young lady said, "They don't eat when the sun is out." What? Like vampires?


The next class didn't provide as much humor until someone said that Jews make potato pancakes. I said, yes, that those were called latkas.

Student: No, I don't think so.

Me: I'm pretty sure that's what they're called.

Student: No, they're called something else.

Me: What do you think they're called?

Student: I don't remember, but I saw it on Rugrats.

Me: Rugrats? Is that your source?



Period 5/6 was by far the best of the day! The first two faux pas were spelling errors posted on the "Judaism" poster.

#1 "[Jews] have Passover fee's once a year" (spelling violation AND innappropriate use of an appostrophe!) Hhmmm. Wonder how much it costs to be a Jew?

#2 "[Jews] go to church sinega"



On the "Violation of Human Rights" poster, one group wrote, "back of the bus were women couldn't vote." I proceeded to ask these students if it was okay for women to vote in the front of the bus.

My favorite of the day came after explaining why Jews don't eat pork. A student said that it was because they were dirty. I went on to explain that pigs eat leftovers and roll in the dirt. Another student asked a related question, one so appropriate to the subject matter than I no longer even remember what it was, and then this happened . . . One of our school's football players and a usually average student raised his hand. I nodded at him and he asked, in absolute seriousness, "Are we pork?"

I stopped a moment and then could not help but laugh out loud.
Me: Are you kidding?
Student: No. I mean, we roll in the dirt and eat leftovers.
Me: (After some more laughter) I don't know about YOU but I don't roll in the dirt, and as
for leftovers, I didn't mean our own leftovers that we cooked the night before. I
mean leftovers from other animals.

Despite all the misinformation and silliness, I think most students learned something today. If nothing else, today's activity taught ME that I need to do more of these activities. If for no other reason, for the comic relief!