85 years old, two children, 2 grandchildren and
counting
What a
lovely day, my little troublemakers are staying over for the night and are at
the moment playing hide and seek in the attic. Every now and then, when they
find each other, you hear them screeching with joy. Its three o’clock now and it’s awfully quite,
so I decide to call them to come down for tea and cookies.
‘Jeeaah
granny’s cookies’, they scream and rush downstairs in instant.
‘Please children, be more careful next time will you?’ ‘You little bastards are giving me heart problems’ ‘Sorry Gran, they say’ ‘We will be more careful next time’
‘Playing hide and seek! James and Tom said at exactly the same time’.
‘Ow, and we also found a box full of books and some films’, said Tom.
‘Aha, that’s why it was so awfully quite for some time. You’ve been sniffing around my old stuff’, I said while giving them an inquiring look.
‘Weren’t we allowed to?’ Said James in an innocent way.
‘It’s no problem, as long as you clean up afterwards. ‘Have you guys found something interesting?’
‘Yes we did! We found a film called, euhm, oohyeah Suffragette between a pile of boring looking books’, said James.
‘What’s it about Gran?’ asked Tom.
‘Well, when I was 20 years old we were assigned a film and later on we needed to write an essay about it. I’m very glad they assigned me this film, because It’s about the woman suffrage and therefore very interesting to watch’
‘What is suffrage?’, James asked.
‘It’s the right to vote. You see, a century ago, women weren’t allowed to vote and that’s why they took action’, I explained.
‘Why weren’t they allowed to?’ asked James.
‘Because, it was assumed that women were too stupid or weak to bear the responsibilities of voting’
‘Well that isn’t very friendly ’, said Tom. ‘But, why must you write about it?’
‘Because it was part of the course British Art in Context’ ‘To show them my level of writing and assembling an essay’
‘You only needed to write?’ ‘Sounds kind of boring to me’, said James.
‘No, of course not silly, we also learned a lot about the history of Britain. About smugglers, strikes which got out of hand, religion, the industrial revolution, immigration and loads of other things. We even made poems, something I had never done before and I got inspired by the tasks we needed to do. What also was very keen of teacher was that the overflow they created between the books we needed to learn and the subjects they taught us. Reading the book beforehand made us trigger our foreknowledge and made us acquaintance with the subjects’
‘Oehh Smugglers, sounds fun!’ said Tom.
‘May we watch television now gran?’ asked James.
‘Yes of course’, I said.
I walked to the living room to turn on the television.
The boys sat next to each other watching funny home videos. I sat in my armchair knitting a pair of socks as my thoughts wandered off. 60 year ago I got my first job as a teacher and I’d loved to do it. Strange it is how much influence courses can have on you as a teacher without actually knowing it. I’ve adjusted poetry, mind mapping and even Pecha Kucha’s in my lessons, giving it a twist of my own without revering back to where I caught the idea of the assignments. Now, I am 85 and I’m not teaching anymore. I have had a good life so far, I married with my husband who is cards with one of his old mates right now, I gave birth to two beautiful daughters and both of them gave birth to a boy. Tom is 8 years old now and James is 6. Now I have the privilege to see them grow up and tell them about my life experiences.
‘Please children, be more careful next time will you?’ ‘You little bastards are giving me heart problems’ ‘Sorry Gran, they say’ ‘We will be more careful next time’
‘Playing hide and seek! James and Tom said at exactly the same time’.
‘Ow, and we also found a box full of books and some films’, said Tom.
‘Aha, that’s why it was so awfully quite for some time. You’ve been sniffing around my old stuff’, I said while giving them an inquiring look.
‘Weren’t we allowed to?’ Said James in an innocent way.
‘It’s no problem, as long as you clean up afterwards. ‘Have you guys found something interesting?’
‘Yes we did! We found a film called, euhm, oohyeah Suffragette between a pile of boring looking books’, said James.
‘What’s it about Gran?’ asked Tom.
‘Well, when I was 20 years old we were assigned a film and later on we needed to write an essay about it. I’m very glad they assigned me this film, because It’s about the woman suffrage and therefore very interesting to watch’
‘What is suffrage?’, James asked.
‘It’s the right to vote. You see, a century ago, women weren’t allowed to vote and that’s why they took action’, I explained.
‘Why weren’t they allowed to?’ asked James.
‘Because, it was assumed that women were too stupid or weak to bear the responsibilities of voting’
‘Well that isn’t very friendly ’, said Tom. ‘But, why must you write about it?’
‘Because it was part of the course British Art in Context’ ‘To show them my level of writing and assembling an essay’
‘You only needed to write?’ ‘Sounds kind of boring to me’, said James.
‘No, of course not silly, we also learned a lot about the history of Britain. About smugglers, strikes which got out of hand, religion, the industrial revolution, immigration and loads of other things. We even made poems, something I had never done before and I got inspired by the tasks we needed to do. What also was very keen of teacher was that the overflow they created between the books we needed to learn and the subjects they taught us. Reading the book beforehand made us trigger our foreknowledge and made us acquaintance with the subjects’
‘Oehh Smugglers, sounds fun!’ said Tom.
‘May we watch television now gran?’ asked James.
‘Yes of course’, I said.
I walked to the living room to turn on the television.
The boys sat next to each other watching funny home videos. I sat in my armchair knitting a pair of socks as my thoughts wandered off. 60 year ago I got my first job as a teacher and I’d loved to do it. Strange it is how much influence courses can have on you as a teacher without actually knowing it. I’ve adjusted poetry, mind mapping and even Pecha Kucha’s in my lessons, giving it a twist of my own without revering back to where I caught the idea of the assignments. Now, I am 85 and I’m not teaching anymore. I have had a good life so far, I married with my husband who is cards with one of his old mates right now, I gave birth to two beautiful daughters and both of them gave birth to a boy. Tom is 8 years old now and James is 6. Now I have the privilege to see them grow up and tell them about my life experiences.
When
they’ve sat down at the table on the balcony I poured them a nice cup of hot tea
with milk and gave them a huge crump of spiced biscuit. It was a beautiful day,
not too hot and not too cold.
‘So, what
have you guys been up to today?’ I asked.
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