8 ms·

Teaching isn’t about managing behavior

80 points by pabo 6y ago

JKCalhoun 6y ago
> In the next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. The Baby Boomers are leaving behind a nation of more novice educators. In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades later, that number had fallen to just three years leading a classroom. This might not be a bad thing. I remember the late 60's and early 70's being an incredibly innovative time in education: likely when many of the Baby Boomer teachers were stretching their wings. Experimental schools, "free schools", open classrooms, self-paced learning etc. It was a time when you knew someone that attended a Montessori school, when we were moving to the Metric system... In short it was a time of optimism and trying out new ideas. If the current crop of teachers can get out from under the yoke of "Common Core" or these other top-down initiatives we might see some innovation in education again. And frankly school might become fun again as well.
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  It think more important than certain paradigms in teaching are actually competent teachers themselves. The optimistic model drew certain crowds. It is an advantage to have a common core in education if is doesn't end in forming people and instead giving them tools. I think the state has to ensure that education is broadly available and not let people fall behind. But you can only administrate so much to ensure good quality of education.
- snthd 6y ago
  https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_mosquitos_malaria_and_education/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_mosquitos_malaria_and_e... >12:11 > Once somebody has taught for three years their teaching quality does not change thereafter. The variation is very, very small.
  - zepto 6y ago
    This means that in then current scenario half of teachers will not have reached full competence, whereas in 1988, 80% would have. This is a monumental problem.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nickff 6y ago
This piece is very nicely written, but they never describe what their definition of 'successful teaching' is. "Reality pedagogy" might achieve some emotional or social objectives (though the piece relies entirely on anecdotes), but do they help the student's long-term life outcomes? As an aside, despite the article's assertions, there is very little evidence that experience improves teaching ability, despite many studies on the matter.
- adamsea 6y ago
  With regards to long-term life outcomes, that's an interesting question. It'd be cool to see some studies. I don't disagree with your implication that the teaching process the author describe might short-change learning the core skills/knowledge being taught in a course. But I would think that depends on the application of the technique and doesn't stem from the nature of the technique itself. Also lets' not forget that anecdotal knowledge is a legitimate source of knowledge, it is just a different kind than scientifically produced knowledge. They both have their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations, and each should be critically assessed using different criteria (quality of the scientific paper, reputation of the scientists/journal behind it, and for anecdotal knowledge, reputation of the writer, logic of their argument, how it corresponds to our lived experience, etc). Also I'd like to rephrase what you wrote to read "emotional objective for the student", and "social objective for the student". As the author is arguing these practices help the student's emotional and social development. I think it does define what the author considers successful teaching. A definition by providing a counterexample of unsuccessful teaching: "I taught through violence against Muslim students and used the permission I tacitly received from the school to justify my inaction. I ignored the chaos of the world beyond the classroom because I believed that it was my job to just keep on teaching. Looking back now, I realize I was not actually teaching at all." What the author believes the goals (outcomes) of teaching should and should not be: "In 2001, I thought that good teaching meant delivering content knowledge to students who were behaving “appropriately.” In 2020, I know that is not enough. I’ve learned to see my classroom as a platform for empowering students and transforming society, and to use my pedagogy as a form of protest against norms that silence students. Far from sacrificing content knowledge, engaged students, whose voices are heard, are better able to learn it." A positive definition, which describes the behavior of a successful teacher, and that the desired outcome for the students is creating a certain kind of learning process for them to participate in: "Reality pedagogy interrupts the notion that teaching is about managing students and their behavior. Instead, I’ve learned to see them as co-teachers, and I create space for dialogue—in small groups outside of class—about how they experience the classroom and the world beyond it. It’s a space for connection, but also for any critiques they have of my teaching. These conversations are generative for everyone involved. Teachers need feedback from their students, who can see what teachers have been trained to ignore in their blind pursuit of a calm, quiet classroom. And students need a sense of agency, which they are often denied. Co-teaching requires that teachers be humble enough to become students of their students—especially the students who have been most harmed, and will benefit most from a teacher listening to their experiences. In my first years of teaching, I never asked to hear my students’ thoughts about having to sit and learn while the world around them was going crazy. I didn’t make space for my Muslim students to heal from being targeted. But if I had started that dialogue, I would have learned a lot from them about how I could have been a better teacher. When students have this kind of agency, a classroom can start to function like a family—or even a small society. I give all of my students a classroom responsibility that counts toward their grades and involves taking care of the physical classroom and each other. And I institute democratic decision making for all actions taken in the classroom: Students help to decide what assignments we work on, how long we spend on activities, and what to discuss. The classroom can serve as an example of what the world should look like—all students with equal power, regardless of their culture or background—rather than a replication of what it is. Reality pedagogy involves connecting academic content to events happening in the world that affect students. The curriculum can weave in specific references to the neighborhoods where young people are from, inequities that they and their families are hurt by, and protests in the community. But that doesn’t mean these lessons are always serious. Students can compete to show their knowledge through art, games, and music. I have created projects like the Science Genius competition, where young people write raps about science content and events happening in their lives and compete to be the best scientist, rapper, and storyteller. The classroom—especially for Black youth—should not feel like a place where they are policed or silenced. Black joy can be a part of daily learning."
RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
> The best teachers don’t just keep teaching. Instead, they use their pedagogy as protest: I hope not. I think teachers should teach to the status quo and let students when they are older or their parents make the decision about what they are going to protest, and what changes they are going to push for. In general, I think students, especially young students, should be shrieked from the ugliness of life as much as possible so they can focus on learning the educational and social skills that will help them in life. Teach to give them the tools so that they can make their own decision when they get older. Otherwise, if teachers are really using their pedagogy as protest, expect to see even more erosion of support for the public education system, and even more fracturing of the social bonds as schools are chosen , not for their ability to educate, but whether what they indoctrinate matches up with their parents’ wishes.
- seneca 6y ago
  Hear hear. This pattern of people leveraging their professional position as a platform for activism is questionable, but debatable, in general. But being entrusted to teach children requires exactly that, trust. If school systems lose the trust of parents, and eventually their larger communities, they're done. If schools can be reasonably viewed as attempting to indoctrinate children, there will be a massive backlash. People will put up with a lot, but their children are generally off limits.
  - falcor84 6y ago
    Interesting, but isn't it the reverse? I don't think education can be really free from politics. Thus, if teachers are not allowed to take up "activism" on an individual basis, and are forced to "toe the party line", then that's exactly indoctrination of students, no?
    - seneca 6y ago
      This is a rephrasing of the "everything is political" argument. No, teaching math is not.
catalogia 6y ago
If math class is for teaching social science, then perhaps social studies class could be for teaching trigonometry.
- falcor84 6y ago
  On a related note, for better or worse, social studies seem to be the main driver bringing people to study statistics. Indeed, that was what popularized IBM's SPSS tool, originally standing for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
ARandomerDude 6y ago
> In the next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. This is true of all career fields at all times.
- swsieber 6y ago
  But moreso in teaching right now: > In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades later, that number had fallen to just three years leading a classroom.
  - burfog 6y ago
    Teacher burn-out is mostly ignored because fixing it would require undoing some very deliberate changes, like keeping bad kids in school and even in normal classrooms. We'd have to empower teachers to expel kids who refuse to be students.
    - treeman79 6y ago
      Wife has been bitten, stabbed, attacked by students many times. Nothing is ever done. Usually a small number of kids that ruin everything for the rest. Many schools are a blame teachers culture. She’s been at this long enough many of the trouble makers have grown and are in jail, missing, or dead. Turns out ignoring bad behavior doesn’t work.
      - giantg2 6y ago
        In our state, that can be a felony aggravated assault charge (assuming they meet mens rea and charges are pressed).
        treeman79 6y ago
        2nd graders pretty much have to kill or permanently maim the teacher before something serious happens. Of course some of these are 3rd time 2nd graders
MarcScott 6y ago
I agree that "Teaching Isn't About Managing Behavior", in the same way that programming isn't about avoiding syntax errors and driving a car isn't about staying between the marked lines on the road. I was a teacher for fifteen years. The writer of this article started about the same time I got into the profession, so has nearly 20 years of experience. The first thing you need to do with any class is manage behavior. This can be tricky in your first couple of years, but after a while it just becomes part of who you are. You're more confident in the classroom, you have a reputation in the school, you can recognise and shutdown disruptive behavior before any of the other kids have realised something is about to kick off. At that point your classroom changes, and you can practice what the author calls "Reality Pedagogy", or any other type of pedagogy you like. Believe me, having observed and mentored plenty of student teachers over the years, the first thing you need to tackle is behavior management. Once that is established then you have the opportunity to be the "captain, my captain" teacher, or whatever you like really.
- xhkkffbf 6y ago
  Exactly. And winning a war isn't about feeding your soldiers, but you can't win the war without good mess hall sergeants. One loud, misbehaving student can ruin the class for the other n-1. Idealists want to dream that there are no bad kids and it's all the fault of the patriarchy, white supremacy or worse. They may be correct, but work won't commence until everyone is sitting still.
  - nickff 6y ago
    The problem with applying your priorities (for the idealists) is that the misbehaving kids tend to come from the 'victimized' groups. This means that by enforcing clasroom discipline, they (often) feel that they are reinforcing the patriarchy, white supremacy, or other evil side.
    - catalogia 6y ago
      Suppose a child disrupts class for 30 of his peers because his dad beats him. His dad has now effectively victimized 31 kids. Wouldn't it be productive and moral to find ways to help all 31, perhaps by putting misbehaving kids in special classrooms where they can receive specialized help?
ihsw 6y ago
> "I am going to be teaching you science and math." And then: > "But institutional racism..." Stopped right there.
xmsam 6y ago
Teaching isn’t about managing behavior, but it is about managing attention. A misbehaving student draws others’ attention from the task at hand, stealing valuable focus away from the learning activity. Managing behavior is therefore critical to both teaching and learning.
082349872349872 6y ago
Managing behaviour in a mid-80's soviet classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT9VBW87QXw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT9VBW87QXw Note the rigid uniformity, and how students are expected to stand when giving answers. It may also be a good example of the extent to which academically strong students were dragged down by their peers? (The whole movie is subversive in certain ways. I understand soviet children were indoctrinated to be helpful to adults, but in the movie Julia's grandmother —who may have had some experience herself with the value of keeping one's mouth shut— helps them buck the system.) On sexism in the soviet union: Today, little Johnny's class has a pair[1] of teaching observers. After waiting a moment with no hands raised, the teacher calls on Johnny, asking him what inspired Pushkin to write To the Beauty. Johnny answers, "she has such fine legs. I bet her ass — exquisite." "Citizen John!" exclaims the teacher, "go straight to Principal, and tell him what you said!" On his way out the door, Johnny angrily denounces the teaching observers: "next time you prompt, Comrades, please ensure you know correct answer." [1] one who can read, and one who can write. Their job is to keep a watchful eye on the intellectuals teaching the classes.
- heimatau 6y ago
  This video has edited the children's mouths and the teachers. This is an intentional edit when they speak. It's really trippy to watch. Because it's fairly good in some instances but...also terrifying.
  - d0mine 6y ago
    The grandparent comment is trolling. The video is not a documentary (there is an innocent explanation of why the English part is edited) and the comment's text is just political jokes from 80s (I've heard somewhere that CIA takes credit for many jokes of that time).
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      Trolling? The first part specifically stated it was a movie; I'm not sure what gave the idea it might have been a documentary. The joke is to explain why the other students were prompting Fima — a behaviour that was strongly discouraged in my western schools. Of course I'd recommend watching the whole thing (or even the Alisa cartoon), for good examples of non-western juvenile SF, but in this case I was deliberately trying to show an example of non-western classroom behaviour management. It may not have been entirely realistic, but judging from the nostalgic comments I've seen, it was not so unrealistic that students at the time it was aired found it ludicrous. (counterargument: Friends — has many fans, but just how did NY baristas afford apartments like those?)
gnicholas 6y ago
The WTC story reminded me of what happened in one of my college classes that day. I was in a linguistics class on syntax and the teacher was diagramming sentences. It was around 11 AM ET, and students were aware that the towers had fallen. The teacher was annoyed by the students who were whispering in the back of the smallish classroom, so she diagrammed the following sentences: • The students were talking in the class. • It annoyed the teacher that the students were talking in the class. After class she learned what had happened and sent an apology email to everyone (and cancelled the next class). My guess is that she had been prepping class all morning and hadn't read any news.

80 points by pabo 6y ago

> In the next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. The Baby Boomers are leaving behind a nation of more novice educators. In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades later, that number had fallen to just three years leading a classroom. This might not be a bad thing. I remember the late 60's and early 70's being an incredibly innovative time in education: likely when many of the Baby Boomer teachers were stretching their wings. Experimental schools, "free schools", open classrooms, self-paced learning etc. It was a time when you knew someone that attended a Montessori school, when we were moving to the Metric system... In short it was a time of optimism and trying out new ideas. If the current crop of teachers can get out from under the yoke of "Common Core" or these other top-down initiatives we might see some innovation in education again. And frankly school might become fun again as well.

raxxorrax 6y ago
It think more important than certain paradigms in teaching are actually competent teachers themselves. The optimistic model drew certain crowds. It is an advantage to have a common core in education if is doesn't end in forming people and instead giving them tools. I think the state has to ensure that education is broadly available and not let people fall behind. But you can only administrate so much to ensure good quality of education.
snthd 6y ago
https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_mosquitos_malaria_and_education/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_mosquitos_malaria_and_e... >12:11 > Once somebody has taught for three years their teaching quality does not change thereafter. The variation is very, very small.
- zepto 6y ago
  This means that in then current scenario half of teachers will not have reached full competence, whereas in 1988, 80% would have. This is a monumental problem.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

nickff 6y ago

This piece is very nicely written, but they never describe what their definition of 'successful teaching' is. "Reality pedagogy" might achieve some emotional or social objectives (though the piece relies entirely on anecdotes), but do they help the student's long-term life outcomes? As an aside, despite the article's assertions, there is very little evidence that experience improves teaching ability, despite many studies on the matter.

adamsea 6y ago
With regards to long-term life outcomes, that's an interesting question. It'd be cool to see some studies. I don't disagree with your implication that the teaching process the author describe might short-change learning the core skills/knowledge being taught in a course. But I would think that depends on the application of the technique and doesn't stem from the nature of the technique itself. Also lets' not forget that anecdotal knowledge is a legitimate source of knowledge, it is just a different kind than scientifically produced knowledge. They both have their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations, and each should be critically assessed using different criteria (quality of the scientific paper, reputation of the scientists/journal behind it, and for anecdotal knowledge, reputation of the writer, logic of their argument, how it corresponds to our lived experience, etc). Also I'd like to rephrase what you wrote to read "emotional objective for the student", and "social objective for the student". As the author is arguing these practices help the student's emotional and social development. I think it does define what the author considers successful teaching. A definition by providing a counterexample of unsuccessful teaching: "I taught through violence against Muslim students and used the permission I tacitly received from the school to justify my inaction. I ignored the chaos of the world beyond the classroom because I believed that it was my job to just keep on teaching. Looking back now, I realize I was not actually teaching at all." What the author believes the goals (outcomes) of teaching should and should not be: "In 2001, I thought that good teaching meant delivering content knowledge to students who were behaving “appropriately.” In 2020, I know that is not enough. I’ve learned to see my classroom as a platform for empowering students and transforming society, and to use my pedagogy as a form of protest against norms that silence students. Far from sacrificing content knowledge, engaged students, whose voices are heard, are better able to learn it." A positive definition, which describes the behavior of a successful teacher, and that the desired outcome for the students is creating a certain kind of learning process for them to participate in: "Reality pedagogy interrupts the notion that teaching is about managing students and their behavior. Instead, I’ve learned to see them as co-teachers, and I create space for dialogue—in small groups outside of class—about how they experience the classroom and the world beyond it. It’s a space for connection, but also for any critiques they have of my teaching. These conversations are generative for everyone involved. Teachers need feedback from their students, who can see what teachers have been trained to ignore in their blind pursuit of a calm, quiet classroom. And students need a sense of agency, which they are often denied. Co-teaching requires that teachers be humble enough to become students of their students—especially the students who have been most harmed, and will benefit most from a teacher listening to their experiences. In my first years of teaching, I never asked to hear my students’ thoughts about having to sit and learn while the world around them was going crazy. I didn’t make space for my Muslim students to heal from being targeted. But if I had started that dialogue, I would have learned a lot from them about how I could have been a better teacher. When students have this kind of agency, a classroom can start to function like a family—or even a small society. I give all of my students a classroom responsibility that counts toward their grades and involves taking care of the physical classroom and each other. And I institute democratic decision making for all actions taken in the classroom: Students help to decide what assignments we work on, how long we spend on activities, and what to discuss. The classroom can serve as an example of what the world should look like—all students with equal power, regardless of their culture or background—rather than a replication of what it is. Reality pedagogy involves connecting academic content to events happening in the world that affect students. The curriculum can weave in specific references to the neighborhoods where young people are from, inequities that they and their families are hurt by, and protests in the community. But that doesn’t mean these lessons are always serious. Students can compete to show their knowledge through art, games, and music. I have created projects like the Science Genius competition, where young people write raps about science content and events happening in their lives and compete to be the best scientist, rapper, and storyteller. The classroom—especially for Black youth—should not feel like a place where they are policed or silenced. Black joy can be a part of daily learning."

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago

> The best teachers don’t just keep teaching. Instead, they use their pedagogy as protest: I hope not. I think teachers should teach to the status quo and let students when they are older or their parents make the decision about what they are going to protest, and what changes they are going to push for. In general, I think students, especially young students, should be shrieked from the ugliness of life as much as possible so they can focus on learning the educational and social skills that will help them in life. Teach to give them the tools so that they can make their own decision when they get older. Otherwise, if teachers are really using their pedagogy as protest, expect to see even more erosion of support for the public education system, and even more fracturing of the social bonds as schools are chosen , not for their ability to educate, but whether what they indoctrinate matches up with their parents’ wishes.

seneca 6y ago
Hear hear. This pattern of people leveraging their professional position as a platform for activism is questionable, but debatable, in general. But being entrusted to teach children requires exactly that, trust. If school systems lose the trust of parents, and eventually their larger communities, they're done. If schools can be reasonably viewed as attempting to indoctrinate children, there will be a massive backlash. People will put up with a lot, but their children are generally off limits.
- falcor84 6y ago
  Interesting, but isn't it the reverse? I don't think education can be really free from politics. Thus, if teachers are not allowed to take up "activism" on an individual basis, and are forced to "toe the party line", then that's exactly indoctrination of students, no?
  - seneca 6y ago
    This is a rephrasing of the "everything is political" argument. No, teaching math is not.

catalogia 6y ago

If math class is for teaching social science, then perhaps social studies class could be for teaching trigonometry.

falcor84 6y ago
On a related note, for better or worse, social studies seem to be the main driver bringing people to study statistics. Indeed, that was what popularized IBM's SPSS tool, originally standing for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

ARandomerDude 6y ago

> In the next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. This is true of all career fields at all times.

swsieber 6y ago
But moreso in teaching right now: > In 1988, a teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades later, that number had fallen to just three years leading a classroom.
- burfog 6y ago
  Teacher burn-out is mostly ignored because fixing it would require undoing some very deliberate changes, like keeping bad kids in school and even in normal classrooms. We'd have to empower teachers to expel kids who refuse to be students.
  - treeman79 6y ago
    Wife has been bitten, stabbed, attacked by students many times. Nothing is ever done. Usually a small number of kids that ruin everything for the rest. Many schools are a blame teachers culture. She’s been at this long enough many of the trouble makers have grown and are in jail, missing, or dead. Turns out ignoring bad behavior doesn’t work.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      In our state, that can be a felony aggravated assault charge (assuming they meet mens rea and charges are pressed).
      - treeman79 6y ago
        2nd graders pretty much have to kill or permanently maim the teacher before something serious happens. Of course some of these are 3rd time 2nd graders

MarcScott 6y ago

I agree that "Teaching Isn't About Managing Behavior", in the same way that programming isn't about avoiding syntax errors and driving a car isn't about staying between the marked lines on the road. I was a teacher for fifteen years. The writer of this article started about the same time I got into the profession, so has nearly 20 years of experience. The first thing you need to do with any class is manage behavior. This can be tricky in your first couple of years, but after a while it just becomes part of who you are. You're more confident in the classroom, you have a reputation in the school, you can recognise and shutdown disruptive behavior before any of the other kids have realised something is about to kick off. At that point your classroom changes, and you can practice what the author calls "Reality Pedagogy", or any other type of pedagogy you like. Believe me, having observed and mentored plenty of student teachers over the years, the first thing you need to tackle is behavior management. Once that is established then you have the opportunity to be the "captain, my captain" teacher, or whatever you like really.

xhkkffbf 6y ago
Exactly. And winning a war isn't about feeding your soldiers, but you can't win the war without good mess hall sergeants. One loud, misbehaving student can ruin the class for the other n-1. Idealists want to dream that there are no bad kids and it's all the fault of the patriarchy, white supremacy or worse. They may be correct, but work won't commence until everyone is sitting still.
- nickff 6y ago
  The problem with applying your priorities (for the idealists) is that the misbehaving kids tend to come from the 'victimized' groups. This means that by enforcing clasroom discipline, they (often) feel that they are reinforcing the patriarchy, white supremacy, or other evil side.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    Suppose a child disrupts class for 30 of his peers because his dad beats him. His dad has now effectively victimized 31 kids. Wouldn't it be productive and moral to find ways to help all 31, perhaps by putting misbehaving kids in special classrooms where they can receive specialized help?

ihsw 6y ago

> "I am going to be teaching you science and math." And then: > "But institutional racism..." Stopped right there.

xmsam 6y ago

Teaching isn’t about managing behavior, but it is about managing attention. A misbehaving student draws others’ attention from the task at hand, stealing valuable focus away from the learning activity. Managing behavior is therefore critical to both teaching and learning.

082349872349872 6y ago

Managing behaviour in a mid-80's soviet classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT9VBW87QXw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT9VBW87QXw Note the rigid uniformity, and how students are expected to stand when giving answers. It may also be a good example of the extent to which academically strong students were dragged down by their peers? (The whole movie is subversive in certain ways. I understand soviet children were indoctrinated to be helpful to adults, but in the movie Julia's grandmother —who may have had some experience herself with the value of keeping one's mouth shut— helps them buck the system.) On sexism in the soviet union: Today, little Johnny's class has a pair[1] of teaching observers. After waiting a moment with no hands raised, the teacher calls on Johnny, asking him what inspired Pushkin to write To the Beauty. Johnny answers, "she has such fine legs. I bet her ass — exquisite." "Citizen John!" exclaims the teacher, "go straight to Principal, and tell him what you said!" On his way out the door, Johnny angrily denounces the teaching observers: "next time you prompt, Comrades, please ensure you know correct answer." [1] one who can read, and one who can write. Their job is to keep a watchful eye on the intellectuals teaching the classes.

heimatau 6y ago
This video has edited the children's mouths and the teachers. This is an intentional edit when they speak. It's really trippy to watch. Because it's fairly good in some instances but...also terrifying.
- d0mine 6y ago
  The grandparent comment is trolling. The video is not a documentary (there is an innocent explanation of why the English part is edited) and the comment's text is just political jokes from 80s (I've heard somewhere that CIA takes credit for many jokes of that time).
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Trolling? The first part specifically stated it was a movie; I'm not sure what gave the idea it might have been a documentary. The joke is to explain why the other students were prompting Fima — a behaviour that was strongly discouraged in my western schools. Of course I'd recommend watching the whole thing (or even the Alisa cartoon), for good examples of non-western juvenile SF, but in this case I was deliberately trying to show an example of non-western classroom behaviour management. It may not have been entirely realistic, but judging from the nostalgic comments I've seen, it was not so unrealistic that students at the time it was aired found it ludicrous. (counterargument: Friends — has many fans, but just how did NY baristas afford apartments like those?)

gnicholas 6y ago

The WTC story reminded me of what happened in one of my college classes that day. I was in a linguistics class on syntax and the teacher was diagramming sentences. It was around 11 AM ET, and students were aware that the towers had fallen. The teacher was annoyed by the students who were whispering in the back of the smallish classroom, so she diagrammed the following sentences: • The students were talking in the class. • It annoyed the teacher that the students were talking in the class. After class she learned what had happened and sent an apology email to everyone (and cancelled the next class). My guess is that she had been prepping class all morning and hadn't read any news.