Eggsplosive results.
Teaching April 11th. 2009, 10:00pmIn the middle of the week students started bringing eggs to class. No one had told me what was going on, but the Korean teachers had decided to celebrate Easter by having an egg decorating competition. The students would bring in eggs from home, decorate them in class, then give them to their teacher. Then, when parents come to view the classrooms and progress in the school so far, they’ll be able to vote on the best eggs.
Clever idea, except that it required every student to bring three or four hard boiled eggs. Being trapped in a classroom with a dozen kids gobbling their extra eggs proved unpleasant for several teachers. One teacher had just told me about how awful her class was while we were waiting between class periods. She said one boy had broken his egg earlier in the day, and had eaten them in class. All of a sudden while she was teaching, he spewed out all the eggs he had eaten all over his desk.
No more than a few seconds after she told me this, a student vomited all over the floor in the hallway right in front of me. The rest of the time for that break was kept trying to keep students from slipping in the vomit as they ran to their buses. I prevented several students from sliding face first in vomit down the hallway, yet no one will ever recognize me for the hero I am.
To be sure, there were quite a few clever eggs designed by students. I even had a few eggs made in my image. Having your likeness made in egg for you is an odd tribute. I took it as a compliment.
This is the first time I’ve ever had a school do anything for Easter. I asked some students what eggs had to do with a holiday in Spring. The best response was a boy who struggled to find some sort of religious connection, but clearly hadn’t gotten the details quite right.
“Juice was be die on Easter.” If that sentence left you baffled, just imagine the students faces when I explained the reason we color eggs is because a magic rabbit likes to hide them on Easter morning for children to find.
One Response to “Eggsplosive results.”
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April 12th, 2009 at 5:14 am
During the Passover Seder a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water symbolizes the Passover sacrifice offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. In Christian context, the Easter egg tradition may have begun as a celebration of the end of Lenten fasting. For medieval Europeans eggs were forbidden during Lent as well as other traditional fast days. Therefore it was traditional to use up all of the household’s eggs before Lent began. This is also the origin of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent).
I have no idea where the bunny comes in.