Postcards from the Funny Farm

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I have a job where I am constantly second guessing things I can say and examples I can give as to their apporpriateness.  I teach 9 year olds.  Through the years I have learned that humor can open up closed minds to learning so I have many “rated G” stories I apply to lessons when appropriate.  Sometimes, however, I find out things I thought were appropriate were not taken as such by parents.  When you start your year as a teacher and with a new class, you are not just speaking to 30 kids you are speaking to their parents and anyone else you can imagine in their world as well.  Some parents might have quite lower moral compasses than you and others much higher.  Hence the healthy fear thing :)

A classic example is when 2 years ago I showed a scene from “Nacho Libre” as part of a science lesson on muscles.  In my house, we all love Nacho Libre.  Jack Black is one of my favorite actors since he did “High Fidelity” with John Cusack and his recent more kid-friendly movies are all on our shelf.  Nonetheless, when the 24 year old mother met me at my classroom door and ordered me very vehemently to not show that anymore in class, I was taken aback.  It’s amazing how we have the actors and musicians of the world pulling in millions per video and/or CD telling our culture what’s funny and then we have teachers barely making it on 30-80K a year and we have to sort through it all to determine what’s appropriate for class.  Balanced?

A footnote to that story is that the child came up to me a year later and shared with me that her parents finally rented the DVD and now the family loves it.

As a teacher you have to be constantly aware of what “might” offend.  That might be a good trait for my writing/blogging job as well.  But then again, they say controversy sells print.

When I first started teaching in Santa Ana, California at a little inner city school called Diamond Elementary, I first got a sting on this issue.  As some of you know, my best friend Eric Stefani, not only started a famous band called “No Doubt” in the late 80’s, but also spent many years on the payroll as an animator for the Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, and other excellent animated series through the 90’s and 2000’s.  I wanted my kids to see the enthusiasm in his career, since they had little in their lives.  I asked him to come in and speak to them about being an animator.  He came in and did a great job for someone not accustomed to speaking to kids.  It was all good until the end when he showed an uncensored video of a Simpsons episode.  He was explaining how not everything makes it to TV.  It wasn’t much, just a guy getting his cartoon head lopped off with an axe.  The Principal was concerned and let me know.

Since I shared that with my friend he’s been much more reticent to speak to my kids.  For example, my summer school kids want him to speak to them and he might be hesitant if I asked him.  In fact, I probably won’t out of respect for him.

I can’t complain about the fear of offending since I chose my profession as a grownup (27 in 1997 now 39 in 2008).  But I do wish sometimes people didn’t worry so much about shielding kids from the world they are only a few years from.  As a teacher, my goal is to not just impart knowledge but ignite in them a zest for the world they live in. 

When people judge teachers for what they present, they should take intent strongly into consideraton.  Have you ever offended someone without realizing it?

Whether you are learning or teaching, it’s important to not over stuff your brain. Studies have shown that the mind cannot absorb more than three things at a time. So, if you are writing, don’t make more than 3 main points or they will be wasted on over-fed minds. If you are looking to read and understand something, break it down into three or less main categories. Yellow pads are great for this. You’d do well to “space out” the time you have to study as well. The theory of time spaced learning got me through College Algebra at the junior college. I have always struggled with math and a teacher shared with the class about it. My life has been improved ever since!

The theory goes like this: instead of studying to absorb new material over the course of an hour, break up your time into 15 minute increments. The data shows that memory is strongest when you start and stop a study time. Therefore, instead of having strong memories only twice in an hour, you will have them at the start and stop of each mini session. This equals more knowledge retained! Now this was great news to me, because I loved taking breaks from math!

When it comes to our brains, less is more and quality is better than quantity. Slow down and take more breaks, you’ll be amazed how much more you retain for life!