My Good Class and I Hate Hippies

A few people have commented on my last entry. Don't worry, I'm not becoming some sort of crazed hippy and I'm not about to become at zen with myself. I will still laugh when a child injures themself, enjoy drinking on the correct occasions and appreciate and often enjoy the corruption of people and the planet. I'm just stopping getting wasted regularly, and just for the hell of it. In doing that, much of my time is freed for other pursuits.

Anyway, I just had a very good class. They're young, rumbunctious or rumbustious, I'm not sure which is the correct word, if either, and they're using the damn awful and unusable New Parade book. There's 12 of them and they're quite a handful, because they speak very little English and are very excitable. They've improved recently, but the class can become chaotic if you're not on the ball.

But I absolutely had them tamed last lesson. It's easy to say and often harder to do, but the quieter the teacher you are, the quieter the class. I'm a very laid back teacher, and I don't shout, but often I'd find myself raising my voice just to be heard in that class. So today I reversed the approach, and spoke calmly and quietly and any child making too much noise would be approached and promptly hushed. It worked beautifully. They were attentive and obedient. I barely had to control them, they controlled themselves.

Maybe I am at zen, and my students are getting zenned just by being near me.

God, I hate hippies and zen and all that new age crap. I hate herbal remedies and auras and mysticism and spirituality. Especially spirituality.

I like pure mathematics. Pure, cold, hard, brutal science. I like a vast, empty, cold, unforgiving universe that exists for no reason or purpose except as a series of equations.

Anyway, better go, some toddlers to speak at.