Today in my General English 2 class I reached the dizzying heights of Chapter 8. subject: heroes. I asked my students who their hero was, and received the rather depressing answer that they didn't have heroes, not even Ho Chi Minh. To brighten things up a bit I gave them a short handout on Paul Robeson, which explained both his singing career and his struggles as a Communist in Cold War-era America. One of the students raised his hand and asked "Teacher, what is a Communist?".
Talk about shipping coal to Newcastle. I drew the hammer and sickle on the board, and that seemed to work. But you never can tell...
