citizens of tomorrow

More quotes from my grade 12 students ... Just think: in a few months they will be graduated "finished products" of the public education system with the ability to vote...

"Which country have you chosen for your presentation?"
[upturned face, total innocence]: "Ni**er." 
"Um ... you mean Niger. Niger."


"Miss, I don't understand what we're supposed to pick for our presentations." 
"You can either pick a country or an organization."
"But some people aren't doing that." 
"What do you mean?"
"They're not, like, picking countries. They're picking places in Africa."
Confusion. The realization that she thinks Africa is a country. And here's where I actually heard myself saying these words to a grade 12 student: "Yup, Africa's the continent and then inside the continent are countries. Congo, Rwanda ... those are countries."

On female genital mutilation:
"Often siscors, raisors or unsteril utincles used." 
You can't spell razors? Don't you see that word regularly enough to know that "raisors" looks wrong?

On an article about a Muslim woman being asked to remove her hijab:
"A Musleme woman was asked to take off her Punjab before playing in soccer." 

On an article about a Sikh man in the RCMP who was asked to remove his turban:
"They wanted him to take off his hijab." 
Wrong religion, wrong gender. And you just read about it in the article! 

[closing remark for a formal essay]
"All I can say is either way, the future is going to be f---ing crazy." 

[again, a formal essay about societal change...]
"In the 1880s women wore full body suits, now today in 2013 women are wearing dental floss up their bums at beaches." 


At the top of the page of a first draft ...
"RUFF COPY" 
I hope so!