Making my way through Asia (and grad school) one adventurous step at a time.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Adventures in Bucolic Children...

In response the the exam question "It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.", one of my students repeatedly used the term 'bucolic children'. "Bucolic?", I thought, a puzzled look furrowing my rather unruly brow. Judging by the context, he didn't mean 'Beubonic', nor 'colic', nor 'broccoli'. I made a mental note to look it up, and promptly filed the mental note between "Pecans, while tasty and festive, do not a proper dinner make." and "Do something with my unruly eyebrows."

Later that evening, I tucked myself into bed with my daily crossword puzzle and a handful of pecans. As I worked on the crossword puzzle, I was stopped mid-pencil stroke by number 12 down. Bucolic. 5 letters long, and starting with an "R". Normally, it's strictly against policy to look up crossword clues in my dictionary. However, I retreived the mental note, and decided to look up the word not for the sake of my crossword, but for the sake of my student. Very noble. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my dictionary, and looked up 'bucolic'. I then jumped back into bed, grabbed my pencil and filled in #12 Down: R-U-R-A-L.


Just out of curiosity, how many of you, my dear readers, knew what 'bucolic' meant before you got to the last line of my story?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I knew it!!! Thanks to highschool and university and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Just don't ask me about any significant dates in the history of music. I've forgotten those.

Janice said...

Hmm. I went to highschool and university too - it must have been Beethoven that did it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry - even your dad missed that one. I'll add it to my dictionary.

Anonymous said...

I knew it, but only thanks to my daily dork email, Vocab Vitamins, and not because of encountering it in any naturally-occurring environment.

Anonymous said...

I encounter a lot of words, when teaching my advanced class, that I have no idea about; and I have an MA!

Anonymous said...

I knew it! I knew it! Cause you told me the story a few weeks ago...

Anonymous said...

i knew it too. I blame dr. mantz.