Who doesn't love a class clown? That perfectly timed joke about the ancient Greek poet looking nothing like Homer Simpson is fun for everyone. Unless you're the teacher ... trying to teach a lesson about the Odyssey.
As a teacher, the class clown is often your nemesis. I know this from experience: I taught ninth grade last school year.
They derail lessons, steal the spotlight and, to make matters worse, sometimes they're actually funny. It's not easy enforcing class rules when you're laughing.
What if we looked at class clowns differently? What if, instead of seeing them as a nuisance, we saw them as gifted? A little misguided, sure, but still gifted.
That change in perspective can make a huge difference for some students and their teachers.
Lawrence Davis, a senior at Dover High School in Delaware, is the perfect example.
He's the quintessential class clown, overconfident and mischievous. But also genuinely personable. He had me laughing from the moment I met him.
According to him, every teacher loves him. "They enjoy me," he says. "I'm not gonna say I'm the life of the class, but I bring the class to life."
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That student is a tool to be used to help educate the rest of the class, which may result in more students opening up with more ideas and oh, crap, there are students interested and having fun learning things.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Common Core prohibits such evil activity, so all this must be illegal somehow.
Too bad for the higher thinking students out there...
I have always looked at the class clown this way.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between the class clown and the kid, hungry for attention or behaviorally disturbed, who just won't shut up.
Both, however, will get kindness. The clown often will get a talking to and integrated into the lesson. The disruptive kid, sadly, often has to go to the office because, unlike the clown, he doesn't let the class go on.