Crocodiles

Yesterday, I read a news story about a small town in South Africa. Seems a river runs through it, and rather than attracting Brad Pitt and his fly-casting rod, this river attracts crocodiles. The town school is on one side of the river, forcing the children who live on the other side to cross aforementioned croc-infested river to get to school.

All was going well until someone stole the town's only boat. I imagine there's a special place in hell for this person. Now, the children have to swim across the river, or use inner tubes and inflatable rafts, or their parents have to carry them across. Whatever method they choose, they still have to dodge crocodiles.

As I read this story, I thought, "Their teacher must really be something, because I just don't think my students would swim through crocodile-infested waters to get to my class." I related the story to my students and they confirmed my suspicions. One said, "If traffic is bad, I turn around and go home." So, maybe he'd swim the river if it wasn't congested with crocodiles. Though, if the river was chock-full of crocs, my student could do that James Bond hop-skip-and-jump on their heads to get to the other side. Another student wanted to know how big the crocodiles were. I'm guessing his commitment to the class and the crocodile size are inverse proportions: big crocodile = small commitment. A few students did chime in with, "No, we'd swim the river for you." So, I'm tempted to fill the campus pond with crocodiles and test their commitment.

In other pond-related news, my students are registering for summer classes. They all have a gym requirement, so they've been discussing their options. One option is Fishing. Isn't this more of a hobby? Really begs the question: Why have a gym requirement if you're offering classes that don't require any physical exercise?