Thursday, May 25, 2006

Don't Repeat Bad Words

One of my favorite classroom anecdotes about using (er...um...NOT using) bad language was when a student made a comment that I didn't understand, but the inhale of student breath nearly created a vacuum in the room. I asked a nearby student (I'll call him Jerry) what was said.

Jerry said, "Uh, you don't want to know."

I said, "Yes, I do."

Jerry said, "Well, he called her... well, he was talking about ..." 

Jerry paused for many seconds. I think he was trying to think how to repeat the comment without "repeating" the comment. I waited patiently.

Jerry took a deep breath and said, "He was talking about her kittycat and he called her a garden implement."

That's a story I have been meaning to send in to Reader's Digest for years, but I've never gotten around to it.

2 comments:

  1. well at least the kid was able to use some creative metaphors!

    i really was MIA wasn't i? sorry 'bout that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When we wanted to call someone the "p" word but didn't want to actually say it we'd just say, "meow" instead.

    ReplyDelete

Please choose a Profile in "Comment as" or sign your name to Anonymous comments. Comment policy