kitchen table math, the sequel: Paul has an opinion

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Paul has an opinion

re: advanced classes pitchperson

Well here's what I make of this...

The 'teacher' is an unprofessional (jeans, untucked shirt, unkempt person) asshole, in love with the sound of his pomposity and pseudo intellectualism.

If my phone had been treated thusly the only thing that would keep me from the untold joy of making him eat the pieces of my dead phone would be the more profoundly enjoyable judgment I could get in civil court after having the judge watch this video.

Obviously, Paul is correct (unless that same person's cel phone had just gone off 10 times in a row prior to the cel-phone smashing denouement?)

The reason I myself had trouble reaching this conclusion is that Mr. Advanced Classes Pitchperson puts me in mind of J.R. Xxxxxxx, the 17-year old Sunday school teacher I had when I was in junior high who used to throw chalk at us. J.R. was well within his rights.

OK, maybe not well within, but he had a point.

At the time, I was shocked. Chalk-throwing? In Sunday school? Chalk-throwing by the Sunday school teacher? Plus, J.R. could whip that stuff; it was a scene I recall vividly to this day, which indicates Major Emotional Learning, in case anyone is wondering. That is to say, I remember J.R. throwing chalk as well as I remember the moment I learned that the first plane had hit the North tower.

In retrospect, a 17-year old teaching 12 year olds in Sunday school is obviously going to produce chalk-throwing. There's really no other possible outcome.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

True but for the fact that if this was incident 10, I would want to know what the pompous ass did on incidents 1-9. If this is the consequence for a tenth infraction then his classroom management is a wee bit light, eh?

This being a tangible rebuttal, I hold to my original 'make of it'.

:^)

concernedCTparent said...

My incident was in third grade. Sister Mary Xxxx had enough of us. I actually think it was this one boy that really got her goat that day. She slammed the ruler down on his desk to get his attention and it broke. A piece flew over and smacked me in the face. Me. The focused student whose attention had been placed on the board and Sister throughout the entire lesson. Funny, I hadn't thought of that in a long, long time. I won't ever forget it though.

Unknown said...

It's hard to say what's going on in the video.

This guy acts like a grad student giving the pitch to incoming college freshmen as some sort of orientation. He clearly has no repoire with the audience, and is unaware of the need to establish one.

Catherine Johnson said...

uh-oh

I feel a Times-We-Lost-It thread coming on....

I'm gonna have to write-up the time I lost it in the car and started screaming at everyone.

That one's a GREAT autism story.

Catherine Johnson said...

Paul, I don't think anyone's gonna give you an argument.

I kinda admire the guy's savoir faire, however.

Also his timing.

Catherine Johnson said...

If you're going to smash a student's cel phone to hell in the middle of a lecture about the value of enrolling in advanced classes, that's definitely the way to do it.

Anonymous said...

It was an awfully long time before I learned that everything, everything, is about selling! You're either pitching a project to get funding, or schmoozin (sp?) with folks to earn cred, or pushing a new concept to students. You're always selling something and nobody ever teaches you that or how to do it.

I did learn though, that you can destroy a relationship, in a second, that took eons to develop. I'm betting that this (blccccchhhh) teacher lost his audience forever.

I threw a chair once, wading through a sea of kids to get to a fight. Just missed an innocent bystander and the horror of that is still with me. It was 4 years ago and it's still in my head.

I learned my lesson. Now I let the fights burn out a bit before I get involved. They do much less harm to each other than what I could do by mistake.

Anonymous said...

well, you're not selling anything
to *me* by calling me an asshole
(implictly) for wearing jeans, buddy.
three more fingers pointing back ...