Revelations

I had a revelation this weekend. Well actually a couple, but there's one that I really want to share. Classes that you're not interested can very easily be so boring that you might just want to poke your own eyes out with an icepick. This is a bit of a revelation to me because it's been a little while since I was in a class that met both criteria of not holding my interest at least a little bit, and being unbelievably boring. That hot streak ended this weekend as I was sitting in my lifeguarding class playing read-around from the lifeguarding textbook with a group of 15-year-olds. Now, an astute reader might think that I mention the ages of my compatriots because I am going to blame part of the boredom on them, but that is not the case. Perhaps I'm showing my greenness at writing by adding in a modifier that I have no plans of following up on, but the problem really was with the lifeguarding textbook and not my fellow readers. In fact, they were kind of funny at times.

But I digress, (a phrase I use all too often, perhaps because I am constantly digressing?) and would like to get to my real point; which is that "best-teaching" practices aren't always the best. As somebody who knows a little bit about education (a VERY little bit), I am aware that reading aloud is viewed as being one of said best practices because it calls in to play more of the senses therefore increasing the likelihood of retention, as well ensuring that all members of the class were, at the very least, exposed to the material in some way. I understand and appreciate that, I guess. But the problem is that it's insanely boring and can produce just as many negative effects such as nausea, heartburn... oops, sleep, wandering attention, and anxiety at reading aloud.

I'm here to focus on the boredom aspect today because, on Saturday, we spent a minimum of four and a half hours reading aloud. Now, I'm prone to exaggeration, a fact that I'm well aware of, but that is no exaggeration. And let me tell you, the experience was just as awful, if not worse, than you could imagine. Quite literally, the entire first chapter - which we read in its entirety - consists of detailing how much sleep, nutrition, minimum spf suntan lotion, and what kind of sunglasses, among other minutiae, a "good lifeguard" needs in order to be a "good lifeguard." I was definitely thinking that I had unknowingly been sentenced to eternity in the seventh ring of hell for some heretofore unknown crime against humanity I had committed. But alas, it finally ended and I get all this crappy workweek to look forward to another weekend in the seventh ring. Hooray!