My mother urged me to take down the last post, and so I did. My apologies to anyone who found the obscenities offensive. I was mainly enthused by the fact that the kids seemed to care about what happened in The Scarlet Letter. For those unused to the linguistical reality of an urban classroom (or, quite possibly, any classroom), the profanities that colored my students' conversation might have appeared more alarming than exciting. For the record, the kids were off the record, meaning they didn't know their private conversation was being transcribed. Obviously, those expressions would have been prohibited if they were to attempt to articulate them during a class discussion (which those students wouldn't have). Sorry if anyone found it offensive!

Speaking of profanity, I drove myself hoarse trying to curb it in the classroom today. I taught a sophomore class that I don't normally teach, and two of the students in particular were especially unhappy with the change. They decided that my presence meant that they could swear up a storm at each other and, of course, at me. When I informed them that their language was inappropriate, one responded, "Miss, I'm from the hood. You can't take the hood out of me."

"You don't have to bring it into this classroom," I responded through gritted teeth.

"Whaaaat?!" he cried back. "First of all, I don't even know what profanities are!"

(I know, the non sequiturs never cease to amaze me either.)

He then proceeded to go through every swear word on the books and ask me if those words counted as profanity. After two words, I walked away and directed my attention to other students who were also cursing loudly to each other.

However, even though I ended up almost losing my voice trying to get everyone to focus and stop cursing, I didn't feel completely crazy by the end of class. My mentor teacher told me she was shocked at how composed I looked when she came back into the classroom. (Normally, whenever I have to teach that particular group of sophomores, my distress expresses itself so obviously in my body that I end up looking like a walking train wreck.)

So that was a small triumph! Apparently, I am acquiring something akin to resilience in terms of my interactions with out-of-control classes. In the best case scenario, I would learn how to prevent the out-of-control bit, but hey--I'm just happy I'm not a shaking mess of adrenaline. Woo-hoo for progress.

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