A good question
I love it when I have a whole lesson planned (or even when I don't) and we wind up spending almost the whole class discussing the first question that I ask. When I taught eighth grade civics a few years back, we called those tangents, and I had a designated tangent-caller whose duty was to get us back on track. Any readers of my blog will believe that I have an affinity for such tangents. Anyway, here is the question we discussed for about an hour today:
Is it usually wrong for a 13 year-old boy to cry?
Well... what do you think?
posted by IrelandRomania @ 22.1.08
4 Comments:
I think context is important. I used (and probably still would) cry when I left camp to go home. I think that's a real expression of emotion and to deny that probably wouldn't be as healthy as getting it out. I'm not advocating crying for the heck of it or over small things; I think that learning to be strong is part of growing up as a boy, but don't be so cold as to not be "real."
Avery, Thanks for the comment. I agree that context is extremely important, and the kids latched onto that really quickly. The question really is, "About what should a 13 yr-old boy cry?" Leaving camp is a good example. Separation and loneliness (missing friends and loved ones) are effects of the Fall, which I think is what Jesus cried about at Lazarus' death. He knew Lazarus was dead before he got there, and he knew he was going to restore his friend to life, so we can't say he was crying out of sadness like we do at funerals, never getting to see a loved one again in person this side of heaven. I think he was weeping at experiencing the death that Adam and Eve ushered into the world. Then there is David, also, who wept a lot, if the Psalms are to be believed, or the account of his being confronted with gross sin. We concluded in class that the major categories of things that boys (and grown men) should cry over are sin and brokenness in our own lives and the effects of sin in the world around us and our relationships. I believe men don't cry enough over the horrors of abortion and child pornography (or any pornography, for that matter), for the state of the Church in America today, and for our own offenses in the face of God.
You know what makes me want to cry? The fact that we recently found a working copy of Kurt's speech. That's right. A working copy.
b. wallace, that doesn't make me want to cry. It makes me want to drop a thousand bucks on a plane ticket and be sitting in your living room in 24 hours. DON'T let anything happen to that copy, capiche? That, next to the "nothing to fear but fear itself" and the "democracy will save the world" speeches is one of the great rhetorical masterpieces.
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