my day

in biology class today, we covered evolution. the teacher was showing slides of old bones, when a student asked "are these bones before christ?" the teacher said yes. the student said "nothing is before christ." well, even using her logic, what about god? to say nothing of mary and joe. this same student has asked repeatedly "isn't it true that scientists hate god?" as if they had a personal relationship with the deity. "oh yeah, god? he's a no good prick!" when you think about it, the science teacher is really up against it, because he or she can't say what they truly feel. and this is in "liberal brookline." christ!!

in the class that i teach today, a girl came in stressed because she had just taken a test in her ap government class. "do you think you passed?" i asked. (i never ask if a student did well, because that doesn't matter to me. what matters to me is that they pass, so they can move on and eventually get the hell out of school. that's about as "well" as it gets.) she shrugged. "well, the sun will rise either way" i offered. "besides, what is there to learn in a class on government?" i continued. "just remember that governments are almost always run by corrupt fools, and you'll be fine." she smiled.

later, the class played jeopardy, because i'm tired of giving out tedious work. so, i thought i'd have them play a tedious game. one of the groups decided they wanted to be called "team 69." i agreed to it, which set off a number of giggles. eventually, a student objected to the name, so i changed the name to "team 96." this seemed to pacify him. a few students didn't know what it meant, and asked questions about its meaning. i stated in mock seriousness that they could find out in their spare time. one student suggested that he would look it up on the computer. i said that i thought this would be ok, as long as the computer didn't have a virus. eventually, the more knowing students said they would inform their ignorant counter parts after class.

not to get too deep about this, but i do think there is a pedagogical issue here. the student likes to throw stuff at the teacher to see how the teacher will react. if the teacher doesn't mind it, plays it off, and even incorporates the silliness into the class, the students are more likely to dig the class and the teacher. in general, you have got to let people express themselves, as long as it is within bounds, and you have got to make those bounds as loose as possible. for when you have done that, then you will be able to express yourself and you will be a little more free. and that's really what it's all about, right?

well, it's got to be about something other than war and hypocrisy.

at least i hope so.