22 days 'til 45

Fifteen years ago, I got a job working at a school in Colombia, South America. I taught four classes of English--two 8th grade classes and two 10th grade classes. Since most of the kids had been speaking English since preschool, it was kind of like teaching those subjects here in the United States. The kids there even behaved the same way you would expect kids in our country to behave, except they were a little more forward about things. For example, when I was sick and had to leave the classroom suddenly, the kids asked if I had diarrhea. I don't think U. S. kids would have asked, or they would have snickered about it. These kids were more or less unfazed by my possible stomach problems. I, being a product of my Texas upbringing, was quite fazed by that question, but I didn't want to lie, so I just said yes and went home for the day.

For this reason, I should not have been surprised by what happened when I introduced and new word to my students. Since these were English classes, I taught a lot of vocabulary. Regular old vocabulary that we encounter every day can get kind of stale, so I liked to throw in some words that I found in my WordSmart book. This book claimed to assist readers in achieving an "erudite" vocabulary, and one of my 8th grade classes was primed to learn more interesting words. These were gifted kids and I liked to challenge them. So, I introduced the word "callypigian," which means having well-formed buttocks. I let them look it up in the dictionary. When they found out the meaning of the word they were fascinated, awestruck that such a word existed. They were seriously discussing when someone might use that word. I was triumphant. I had captured their attention. Little did I know how much I had captured.  One of my students raised his hand, and when I called on him he said, "Ms. Hughes, you are very callypigian."

Oh my. I looked around the room. Some students were nodding, others had their heads tilted, puzzled looks on their faces as if trying to decide if his assertion was accurate. No one giggled; no one was really shocked. Except me.

"Thank you," I said after a moment and tried not to have my back to them for the rest of the day.