I saved some of the juicy things for last because I didn’t want to get in trouble. These are two stories that happened in this last quarter. Kids are entertaining me to the end and I appreciate it. The first story was a simple comment made by a student that caught me off-guard but was one of the greatest things I have heard related to technology. I have always had some kids lag behind. Most have very good reasons like some reading or learning disability. Others are behind because they don’t pay attention and I have little sympathy for them. One day a couple of weeks ago I was working with kids and one student who just wasn’t trying to get it. He has no disabilities but is never paying attention even when I focus him for a short period. After I explained the same thing for the fourth time I was a little frustrated but I didn’t say anything and let it go. As the students were leaving a girl in the class passed by me and just said, “That kid is just like Windows XP.” I had to admit that I had no idea what she was talking about and her simple answer to my request was, “He just lags behind in everything!” I had no response and I waited until everyone left to laugh. My new phrase is about someone being like Windows XP.
The second one is sacrilegious and I hesitate to tell the story but it is too good not to share. I apologize in advance to anyone who finds it offensive but it is the truth of what we see daily. We were doing a mini golf course in our engineering course. It was a fun project and I had teams pick a theme which is always fun. The group in question picked history. After a couple of days of planning the holes, this group came and asked if they could do Jesus and I said yes, he is historical and perfectly fine for a hole. That was the easy part. They started to brainstorm. They were close to my desk so I could listen in on the brainstorm. They had some ideas but were stuck so they started to do more research and didn’t like any of the ideas online. They first came up with a windmill which doesn’t sound too bad until I realized that they meant using the cross as the obstacle. I told them they should keep on trying. They had seen one hole online where you shoot the ball into something and then it shoots in at random. They took this to the extreme. They said they should have a cave you hit the ball into. So far, not too bad. Then the follow-up idea was that after 3 seconds (instead of three days) the ball would pop out toward the hole to score. I about lost it but told them they should really find a new idea. The end result was no hole for Jesus. They decided it was too dangerous. If you wonder what we overhear daily, this should give you an idea.