Compositions and Creative Writing
As you know, CCH students can be very creative. Compositions could get exciting and I enjoyed giving the students the first lines or paragraphs of a story and then have them invent their own continuations and endings. Sometimes, though, that could get you into trouble.
Once with the Class of ’90, I asked the students to write their ending to a paragraph about students being shipwrecked and having to make it to the shore of a deserted island (in the style of “Lord of the Flies”). This was the way for the students to express their creativity. Luis Wasserman, however, took his creativity a bit too far. He wrote that the boys threw their English teacher overboard to the sharks! Imagine! After all this sacrifice and effort, you get fed to the sharks. I guess it was so that the students could distract the sharks while they made it to land. No matter. I don’t hold grudges. So I still went to Luis’ wedding in Minnesota.
Did I tell you yet? that a marriage and having kids is one of the best solutions for getting my CCH students in shape. I am not talking about God’s revenge. I am talking about discipline and getting one's life organized! Luis is so sure of that, that he has even done it twice!