vegetarian

Sometimes you just need to tell cute play-on-word stories. Or I do, anyway. Go with it.

In a previous blog post, I mentioned that a favorite class of mine had been obsessed with Medieval History. I chose as a read-aloud the fabulous, witty book Catherine, Called Birdy. Though it is fiction, the author chose a journal format, where the date is recorded and then a famous saints' birthday or feast day is listed below. After a brief explanation of why the character would record facts about Catholic saints, which later became a pivotal plot point, the students promptly forgot all about these little tidbits.

... until one day when the saint listed happened to be the Virgin Mary. One of the students, a recent immigrant from Somalia who still occasionally missed some of the finer nuances of the English language, shot his hand into the air. I dreaded the question to come: "Ms. G, what's a virgin?" I expected snickers or snide comments, but- surprisingly- none came. Another student speculated, "Isn't that when you don't eat meat?"

Well, technically... never mind.