Going Nucking Futz

We are often encouraged to reflect upon our “aha” moments. If I were to do that all the time, I would spend most of my day sitting at the computer. The fact is, I have lots of them. Fortunately for me, I don’t have a great memory, so more often than not, I’m re-ahaing, something I have already thought about. There is a good reason to keep a diary, err I mean journal, or better yet, a blog. I try not to fully engage each of these moments because frequently come during an important hockey game. No seriously, these moments often result during meaningful dialogue with my peers and during assigned reading. They also pop up randomly like the latest one that happened while staring a role of hand crafted wooden apples. One element that is often neglected in education as well as practically every other form of humanity is the one of humor. I believe it to be a very serious issue. Once we don the attire of the professional we are suppose to be void of it. This is because serious issues have no place for humor. You don’t crack a joke at a cancer patient, nor you would tell a humor anecdote at a funeral. Wait a sec! Actually, we often are humorous during times of crisis. I wonder why this is, yet in moments of less serious issues, such as learning the solar system or building a bird house, we are void of humor. Or are we? I can expound upon my social theories of humor until the cows come home, (Bessy left for college in 06) but this blog is for educational purposes, and in that context I will deal with this issue.

Yes! Humor is an essential quality to be a good teacher. If anyone would read this blog, I would certainly hear the rebuttals coming fast and furious. So I will elaborate what humor means to me. Simply, humor is “the absence of seriousness”[i]. In other words, we take life way too seriously and in many ways and certainly in different perspectives, it’s funny. I mean, at the end of it all, what do we have? If life is a journey, why can’t we enjoy the ride? When people are smiling and laughing, they are, mostly, at their best. The issue becomes clouded and even reversed when humor takes on a form bullying. This must be guarded against at all costs. Humor is thinnest attribute of humanity. It can go from good to bad extremely quickly. This, in my opinion, is why humor is left out of education. It’s one thing to tell a joke that mocks someone, it’s quite another to try to be humorous while putting someone down. It can be a confusing and delicate issue. We are so much on guard against any insults that as a society we practically take offence to everything. “Hey nice shirt, that color really compliments your eyes.” “What about my eyes? Are you saying you don’t like the color of my eyes?” yes, basically speaking I suspect we are become a society of tight-asses. In my observation, this only seems to fuel the dark side of humor. Maybe what we really need, is the ability to not take ourselves too seriously. When that first monkey slipped on that banana peel and the other monkeys laughed, the zoo keepers realized that everyone is fallible. We all make mistakes, we all experience moments of embarrassment and we all have been laughed at. We have also laughed at other people. This is especially the case with youngsters as they muddle their way through the social maze of high school. So they discover humor on their own, unguided and often inappropriate. This is my suggestion. Why not have classes on humor? Certainly I am not suggesting that we dictate what is funny and what isn’t. However if we did, it could become a lucrative business ploy. What I am suggesting is that we learn about the importance of humor, how and where to use it wisely, and the consequences of inappropriate humor, such as lawsuits. Why not? There is a lot to be said and learned from this topic. It can help us develop tolerance and understanding. It can open up creativity and liberate the soul. After all, the capacity for humor resides in every human being regardless of gender, race, religion, class and education: except for the French. Haha. There was some humor, not meant to offend because I was only joking.

[i] Me

Well, I guess now is as good as time as any to introduce the killer whale. My memory fails me occasionally but the parable goes something like this. Two guys get thrown overboard and are treading water. One spots a killer whale and says, “That’s one big fish!” The other responds by correcting him, saying, “No, that’s actually a mammal.” The killer whale eats them both. Now I think the story is about labels vs. meanings. That’s how I took it, and it struck a huge chord with me because we live in a society where everything is labeled. Good or bad, we have names for it. I’m not suggesting that we get rid of every noun in existence, but we should remember that things are what they are and by changing the name does not change the what they are. The first example that pops into my head, is the American use of water boarding as aggressive interrogation but is not torture. Now comes the part that fits into education. This is where labels run rampant. I can’t even keep up with them. Handicapped, became handicapable which became special people became special need, which became people with exceptionalities, all in the interests of trying so desperately not to have negative connotations. In time, the label will change again no doubt. But now we have acronyms on top of it all. BCCT, BCFT, ADS, ADSL, PLO, PAC, MAN, LOL. I have become so confused about this, I had to ask what ASD meant about a dozen times and I was doing a project on it. I guess what I am trying to say is, the label isn’t as important as the meaning. Yes, I know labels are important to help convey an idea, and especially important when grading papers. But lets not put too much stalk into it. After all, it won’t matter a hill-a-beans when being devoured by a big fish.

            My weeklong visit at Salmon Arm Secondary School was a great experience and success. I could go on about what an “eye-opening” experience it was, and how much I learned there, but in totally honesty, it really was not all that significant. It pretty much played out how I had envisioned, with no real surprises save for the fact I was expecting to be surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the experience and I am so stoked on going back for my practicum. I got along well with my sponsor teacher and we going to meet a few times soon to go over exactly what I will be teaching. The other teachers there were friendly and helpful and I got along well with the students, who warmed up to me by about Wednesday. But unfortunately, or fortunately, I have no super mind-shifting story to share. As a matter of fact, this week has been a bit void of epiphanies related to education. I guess that’s good, cause I usually get too many of them.

            I am excited to report, however, that I am way behind in my homework and struggling to keep up. I am forced to be truthful when I say it’s not really a lack of time, it is, I guess, laziness. OK, that’s a harsh word for preferring to watch Montreal vs. Toronto (3-2 for the bad guys btw Booooo), or the new Spiderman movie. But it’s more honest than making excuses like “I’m just so busy, with all that traveling, and kid’s school, and hockey, and work.” Oddly enough, it’s the little things I neglect to do: the easy stuff -like this blog entry.  I started this earnestly on Friday night, but after a few lines, I went to watch TV. Now this is unusual for me, for I hate TV. I did some stuff with the kids on Saturday, and Sunday I found out that our major paper was due for Sandra’s class on Monday, (thanks Wes) so I spent all day on that, only to totally botch it. However, this was not a total loss, for I myself wound up relearning important historical facts, such as McKinley was a weenie. It also got me back in the habit of reading a lot, which of course put me further behind in my homework. So I cranked out some poor notes on Vicky’s assigned homework, some better stuff, I hope, on Harold’s. And now I find myself overdue on Blane’s assignment, which is this simple reflection blog. Sorry Blane. However I know that deep within Blane’s unquestionable compassionate heart, he won’t penalize me too badly.