'I am exciting'

Just yesterday, I was going through the English CA2 answers with my Primary 5 students.

And I experienced an earthly revelation.

The statement in question was:

The fundraising carnival was the _______________ event of the school last year.

The answer was of course 'most exciting'.

But my students expressed puzzlement: why isn't it 'most excited'? It happened 'last year'.

And I was puzzled: what has being 'excited' got to do with 'last year'?

Time came to a standstill for a few seconds ...

Suddenly, it came to me - they thought that 'excited' is a past form, and 'exciting' is a continuous form!

Oh my!

For so long, I have always wondered why children persistently wrote 'I was exciting'. Now I finally know!

These poor children! They read ZERO English storybooks (or ANY storybooks) all their lives. Now, their nil reading has caught up with them.

I tried to explain to them that 'excited' and 'exciting' are adjectives, not verbs. Only verbs have past forms. But they still looked like they were shrouded by a cloud of great puzzlement, with their tender eyebrow in-between fiercely wrinkled and their heads slightly tilted.

And adjectives and verbs are not new to them. They not only are slackened in their reading, they are also poor in listening skills, so they hear but do not listen. What you say in class simply fleet across them. Retainment is rare.

God bless these children!