Josickos

Part of my job duties this year includes leading a 50 minute writer’s workshop 4 days a week. The latest assignment for the students is to write a 3 paragraph autobiographical essay. The final paragraph was to include goals they had for themselves, both for this school year and in life.

One of the boys was almost finished today and I was reading over his shoulder as we were editing before we printed a final copy. I got to the third paragraph and when I reached the sentence about his life goals, I was stumped.

It said, “I would like to join an army with Jesus and his josikos.”

I didn’t even know how to pronounce this word and couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say. Looking at the word, I thought he meant “jaw-sick-ohs” and hadn’t the faintest idea what he was trying to say.

Finally, I asked him, “Jesus and his what?”

He said, “Jesus and his ‘joh-sy-cohs’ like in The Passion of the Christ.”

I still hadn’t caught on and said, “Let me think about that for a bit, it’s not spelled right but I’m not quite sure how to spell it. I’ll think about it and we’ll fix it later.”

I started to walk away and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

The boy wants to be in an army with Jesus and his DISCIPLES.