Summer is Nothing but NET.

Kristin came home from her summer job at The Turkey Hill Experience yesterday and announced that she had scored two tickets to the Taste Lab today, featuring the lovely Tara Bennett.  Tara is a former student of mine, now an honors student at Shippensburg, who, like Kristin, is home for the summer and clocking in at THE.

Honestly, it's not a bad gig!  It's busy, but not too busy -- sort of a Hershey Chocolate World kind of place with a little education and a lot of hands on stuff to do.  Including THE TASTE LAB.

As I was watching Tara flawlessly work through a multimedia presentation that culminated with every single person sitting at the tables adding flavoring, infusions and variants to a pint of soft-serve ice cream, it occurred to me how nice it was that I wasn't responsible for this classroom of learners.

After all, the room was hot, there were major distractions in the form of gumball-like dispensers of candy, nuts, and pretzels, lining the walls, and everybody there knew they were there with their eyes on the prize of a self-designed pint.

This is the second former student who has taught a lesson to me this year.  The amazing Chloe Welch had graced my classroom with her brilliance in December, allowing me to switch seats from Teacher of the Gifted to Not Even the Teacher.  (NET.)   It's a nice place to visit, the NET seat, learning from others, experiencing new things with no homework, except for the nagging thoughts of whether I shouldn't have added both marshmallow AND chocolate fudge syrup.  

I learned a lot about Turkey Hill.  For instance, did you know that no matter how far you live from Lancaster County, the milk in your carton of ice cream came from cows within a 20 mile radius of where I live?  And that they use 40,000 gallons of milk from this concentrated radial area of cows every day to supply ice cream to 46 states, parts of South America and the Middle East?

So tonight, grab a Turkey Hill Iced Tea, or a bowl of ice cream, and reminisce about the lovely Lancaster County world in which I live.  And celebrate that during the summer, there is a lot to be learned from present and former students.  Especially when you are Not Even the Teacher in the lessons being taught.