(no subject)
Today, while reading a version of Stone Soup set in China where the soup makers were Buddhist monks, I asked a third-grade class what they thought a monk was. Before cutting them off, I got:
"They're bald."
"They have the hair-thing." (tonsure?)
"It's an old man with a beard who's very wise."
I defined it for them as "a man who has taken religious vows, but is not in charge of a congregation like a priest or a reverend or a rabbi. They have different ways of serving the God they believe in."
I hope I did OK with that; I didn't look it up beforehand.
"They're bald."
"They have the hair-thing." (tonsure?)
"It's an old man with a beard who's very wise."
I defined it for them as "a man who has taken religious vows, but is not in charge of a congregation like a priest or a reverend or a rabbi. They have different ways of serving the God they believe in."
I hope I did OK with that; I didn't look it up beforehand.