Continuing Education

It’s been three months since I returned from Antarctica.

Sorry I haven’t written, but I’ve been busy.

With four chess clubs.

One of my students solved this problem in five minutes.
He is six.

I am also in the middle of teaching a seminar:

Banned In Boston: How Censorship Reveals The Psyche of a City.

Right on Beacon Hill.
In the finest classroom I have ever had.

Next up: Voltaire’s Candide. Which was seized by customs agents on its way to a French class at Harvard in 1929.

What the hell were they thinking?
I guess they weren’t.

But the biggest project is the one that is nearest and dearest to my heart: helping immigrants get their citizenship.

As you may remember, both of my grandfathers were immigrants from Italy.

And someone helped them become US citizens.
So I am simply returning the favor.

My current student is Thi Dang, 66, from Vietnam.

For the last few months I have helped her get ready for the test.

To follow in the footsteps of my first student, Tam Thanh Ma.

I took her into Boston, in preparation for the test.

I wanted her to visit the JFK Federal Building to see what was in store for her.

She got to meet some of the nice people from the Department of Homeland Insecurity.

Although she has lived in the United States for six years, it was the first time she had ever been downtown.

She enjoyed feeding the pigeons.
With her Dunkin Donuts glazed.

Then we visited the Boston Athenaeum.

Where she got to see the Father of Our Country.

Whom we have been studying.

And enjoy the Gordon Reading Room.

We had a lot of fun.

I am very proud of her.

She is very proud too.

Because she passed.