-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

{from the author of the little prince.  phew.  that one hits me in the gut, it’s so poignant.  love.}



this is simply fascinating to me.  among the many, many (did i mention MANY, MYRIAD, INSANE) amounts of fascinating things i’m learning and cramming in my head these days, concepts like this that help ground my philosophies towards education/life/teaching/parenting are the ones that rise to the top.

it’s not that long, and i’m curious to know what you think.

also?  TED is so good.

[i'm having trouble embedding it, so here's the link].

it happens to be both a curiosity of mine to know the background of idioms; it also happens to be a more-than-mild-grammar-snob annoyance when i see them repetitiously butchered in print.  what can i say, i’m an editor/teacher/nitpicky high-horser who likes language (like, LIKE-likes.  you know what i mean).  but if you were never taught, how do you even know it’s wrong?  you don’t.   knowing is half the battle, like g.i. joe says, but in this case, the other half is editing your words before you click ‘publish’ versus, say, red and blue lasers.

i’m certainly not going to nit-pick everything, because SERIOUSLY PEOPLE – i’m not that girl.  i don’t even capitalize “correctly”; obviously, i don’t get all that grumpy.

but, i notice.

so.

lesson for today:

if something catches your eye, you want to say that it

piques your interest.

not PEEK.

not PEAK.

pique.

the word pique comes from the french language (as does a large, and i mean LARGE amount of our english vocabulary). the french word is piquer, which literally means ‘to prick’.

many idioms can be arrived at (or checked) by just looking at it with some common sense, but certainly not all.  something peeking your interest makes no sense.  you could reasonably sort out “peaking your interest”, as it connotes a rise in interest.  however, you would say that you peak someones interest, rather than peak-ing, which isn’t really a word.

so there you are, your idiom for the weak.

see what i did there?   if i were an 80′s band, i’d be grammarama, for sure.

post script:

since we’re on this pique/peek/peak business, when you say you want to look at something, you use “peek”.  how to remember that?  peak = mountain.  if you aren’t talking about something big, or mountain-like, best bet is you need “peek”.  homonyms will get you every time.

BORING FRIENDS

We know only four boring people.  The rest of our friends we
find very interesting.  However, most of the friends we find
interesting find us boring: the most interesting find us the
most boring.  The few who are somewhere in the middle,
with whom there is reciprocal interest, we distrust: at any
moment, we feel, they may become too interesting for us, or
we too interesting for them.

– from Samuel Johnson is Indignant, by Lydia Davis

hearts.

for a teaching job.

and i haven’t finished, you know, learning how to teach yet.  i graduate next may.

it’s an interesting opportunity, and given more time perhaps i will share all the details.  you know, when i know more, etc.

but needless to say, it’s exciting, it’s compelling, it’s TERRIFYING.

i always want to be impressive in interviews, but i almost don’t want to be too over the top impressive.  sometimes i reach the point where i feel like i’m getting all show and no go.  i need to channel my inner brit, and tone it down a little

i have extra copies of my updated resume, my (first ever) lesson plan, my clip from the office that i am showing to intro my 15-minute mini-lesson, my trusty notes, and i dug out my old businessy togs from the Closet of My Former Life.  oh, and i have a dearth of enthusiasm.

i’m ready.  let’s hope.

my mother tells me to stop gesticulating so much.  good advice.

goodnight!

p.s. could this possibly be a worse week for an interview for a job for which i have not quite yet finished my education?  finals, two research papers, of which one’s rough draft is entirely overdue (please have mercy on me, professors), a novel and a comic book to finish, education analysis due…OY.  oh well.  lemonade.  or at least, some lemon desserts.

some days training or teaching feels an awful lot like this.  “please somebody say something, anything.”

today is one of those days.

who knew that training seemingly competent fully grown adults would be adequate education for teaching high schoolers.

sigh.