Obviously there would be no school
without students although teachers at times which there weren’t any. I loved
their energy, their enthusiasm and their creativity. That often extends beyond
their studies. That is as it should be.
For a couple of years I followed
Dr. Dennis Oliver, a missionology professor, with my own C.E. class in the
freshman lecture hall. I loved Dennis. He and his family lived on Victoria Avenue
only a couple of blocks from us. We often traded babysitting. But Dennis appeared
to be the stereotypical absent-minded professor. Students would often set up some
joke to mess with Dennis and since the gag was already set, they would try it
again in my class. But one of the funniest had nothing to do with anyone playing
a joke on him. It was purely Dennis.
Dennis always had an armful of
books and papers when he arrived only moments before class began. On this day
he arrived rather harried, not unusual. He spread out his books and papers on
the table and was digging around for something when class was to begin. He was
going through his pockets and briefcase as he looked everywhere for his
glasses. After a few short minutes of frustration, he told the class what he would
be right back, He excused himself while he went back to his office to find his
very necessary glasses. It wasn’t long after he left when the whole class burst
into laughter. His glasses were on top of his head. Naturally, no one told him.
There were two class jokes attempted
on me. The first involved a puppet stage to the left of the podium. When I
arrived I noticed students looking from the box to me and back at the box.
Class had not started so I walked over beside the puppet box – looked and
listened but heard nothing. I mouthed to the class “Is there someone in there.”
Several nodded that there were.
A few minutes into class the
puppeteer began is mime entertainment program. There were some snickers. I
could not see the puppet from my angle but I motioned to the class not to
respond. The puppeteer began to talk and then sing. Then he asked the class to
sing. I motioned to them not to sing. He was getting nervous and realized his
joke was falling flat. I finally asked him he wanted to come out or did he
prefer to just sit there quietly until the class was over. He said, “I’ll just
wait.” After class I went to met him and watched his face turn red from
embarrassment. I told him it was a good try, but he could have joined the
class. He was too embarrassed. I figured it out before class. He mentioned that
Dr. Oliver never did get it.
My all time favorite was the
player piano. As I walked into class, I happened to notice some hooks in the
ceiling. I admit that even noticing something like that was rather unusual as
the ceiling was quite high. I did notice some students looking in that area.
That caught my attention.
As I got down by the piano I could
see there were wires from those hooks down into the piano. I then followed the
wires along the ceiling to another set of hooks and noticed they came down at
one special desk. The student at that desk had his back turned to me and did
not notice that I was looking.
About 20 minutes into class the
piano began to play the first few notes of Mary
Had A Little Lamb. I looked at the piano and it stopped. I continued as
through nothing has happened. When it started up again I continued my lecture while
walking up the aisle to where the pianist was playing and asked him to play the
entire song. “I only have three keys rigged.” We all laughed and it was over. I
understand he terrorized Dr. Oliver.
You just cannot beat the creative
of students. There was something happening all the time. It was easier to pull
off the great jokes on a professor who lectured. They never knew exactly what I
had planned for my class from time to time.
There was another time when the
puppet stage was planned for used, but I almost immediately put the class into
small groups and the class got so loud nothing happened. This time I never knew
anyone was in there until the end when I saw him coming out. I went over to
tell him how sorry I was that I had put a kink into his plans.
The hard part for the student was
that Dr. Oliver had a guest lecturer that same day so the boy was in the box
for two hours and never had the opportunity to do whatever it was he had planned.
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