Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Crazy and Names

I'm kind of miserable today. I've been dealing with a drippy/congested nose for a couple days now, but you don't want to hear about that. So, instead I'm recycling a post from January 19, 2007. Enjoy.

Today I had a middle school special ed. class. The good thing about special ed.--small class size. The problem--the kids are crazy.

During my first class, there was this girl who had a binky in her mouth. Mind you, she was at least 12. And she was sucking on a binky like a toddler. When I questioned her on it, she could not understand why I was bothering about it. Like it was normal. This is what I mean by crazy.

I suppose I shouldn't use that term. Understand that I don't mean that they belong in an institution or anything. Mostly they just need therapy, and I'm sure most of them get that.

But it's not just the kids. Some parents need help. I mean, you have to be a bit twisted to name your child Shine-on-me.

What is it with the "creative" names? Don't people realize that what seems so cute or clever on the birth certificate is going to be a burden to the child. I swear, roll sheets need pronunciation keys. And then when I predictably massacre some strange name, the kid gets all offended.

I started this list of all the strange names I encounter. Sometimes it's only the spelling. I've gotten good at deciphering names that are just spelled weirdly (Ekkoe=Echo), but sometimes the names are just entirely made up. And what's worse is when there are similarly spelled names, but the pronunciations are different. (Marquis--I've seen it pronounced like the French title, I've seen it where the "quis" is pronounced like it would be in English, and I've seen it pronounced "Marcus".) I end up using the wrong pronunciation for the student in front of me.

That's why I prefer seating charts. Then I don't have to try to figure out the silly names.

Of course, I'm not allowed to get offended when they mispronounce my name, but that's another topic altogether.

Some things never change. Have you ever met anyone with a strange name? Please share.  

5 comments:

  1. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

    I've met someone named Polly Ester Shirts. Syphilis and Gonorrhea (twin girls named thus by their black mother that thought the names sounded neat on a poster at the clinic). She had no idea they were venereal diseases.

    Here in Utah there are boys named Ezekiel, Elijah, and other biblical/Book of Mormon names.

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  2. "Creatively"-spelled words annoy the crap out of me! Think of the poor child people!

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    Replies
    1. I know! Imagine having to live your life stuck with one of those names.

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  3. I hope you feel better soon!

    I went to a dance studio once where one of the other girls had the name "Unique".

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  4. I hope you're better soon too. When I used to work in the city, there were so many names that were hard to say. Now I have 2 strange pronounciations in a classroom of 25.

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