I think I said last year about how I "loved" the "old soils guys" (even though I never met any of them) because of some of the things they said.

(The quote from F. D. Hole: "Soil is the hidden, secret friend, which is the root domain of lively darkness and silence." is one of them. Another is Hans Jenny's "Soil appeals to my senses. I like to dig in it and work it with my hands. I enjoy doing the soil texture field test with my fingers or kneading a clay soil, which is a short step from ceramics or sculpture. Soil has a pleasant smell. I like to sit on bare, sun-drenched ground and take in the fragrance of soil.").

There's an interesting scholarly article on soils, human culture, and the humanities here.

One of the things the author exhorts soil scientists to do it to make soil study more "vital" which I guess I am going to try to do...I sometimes have a little difficulty with vividness and "vital" in my teaching because I tend to worry too much about getting the necessary content across. But I'm going to read that article and try to think about how to incorporate some of the ideas.

On the lighter side, there are also soil songs, some of them written by Dr. Hole himself.

(Am I alone in thinking it interesting that an eminent soil scientist - who probably spent a good part of his life examining holes he had made in the ground - was himself named Hole?)

But my favorite, in terms of sheer incongruity, is the parody of the Spice Girls' "I Wanna Be," rewritten by a couple of 8th graders into "I Wanna Dig." I'm going to quote it here because I love it so much:

"Yoooo, I'll tell ya what I want, what I really, really want.
Soooo, tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, really, really, really, really
dig, dig, dig.

So get the shovel, forget your hands,
if you wanna dig with me you'd better do it fast.

Now don't go wasting my precious time,
just get those soil samples and we'll be just fine.

(repeat chorus)

If you wanna be my partner, get down and dig,
We'll be doing this forever, so you'd better make it quick.
If you wanna be my partner you have got to dig,
digging's not too easy, but that's the way it is.

So, what you think about that now you know how it feels.
Collect those soil samples, how wet does it feel?

(repeat chorus)

Get your shovels down, dig all around.
Get your shovels down, dig all around.
Dig, dig, dig
Get your shovels down, dig all around.
Dig, dig, dig
If you wanna be my partner!"

Summer and Georgeanna, get ON with your bad selves!

(One of the things that amuses me most is incongruity. And I love, love the incongruity of the Spice Girls and soil science. So that song delights me.)

That said, no, I'm not going to sing the songs for my class. I must draw the line somewhere.