Being stuck in remote teaching has me reminiscing about the good old times in physical classrooms, and I would like to share a story from early in my teaching career that will always have a special place in my heart. 1/

Dr. Albert took what we call a "non-traditional" path into K12 education, in the sense that her first big girl teaching job was in a correctional institution. 2/

Still some of the best classes I ever taught. Most dedicated students you could imagine, the kind of seminar discussions that teachers pray for. But my students were coming from the full gamut of educational backgrounds, and I had some who struggled. A lot. 3/

One of my strugglers was a student I'll call Aaron. Had an 8th grade education, in theory. Loved to read. Loved to talk about books. Didn't always get what he was reading, and really didn't get how to write about it. 4/

To help, I suggested Aaron write down anything his classmates said that he liked so that he could explore them himself later. He loved doing this. He loved hearing everyone's ideas. He told me his goal for the semester was to have an idea everyone would want to write down. 5/

So I'm teaching PARADISE LOST (this should surprise none of you). We're having a free-for-all on Satan. One of the Strong Students makes pt that Satan is "a horrible leader who's really good at convincing people that he's a good leader." Aaron loves this. Writes it down. 6/

The next class, they have a five-question reading check. Aaron spends a little too much time on the first four question, runs out of time on the last one. I have them swap papers to check answers. Q5 was smth like "why does Satan run the Council of Hell the way he does" 7/

The student who gets Aaron's paper looks at his very short answer at the bottom of the page and makes a face like this: 8/

And says "Aaron, why'd you write 'CAUSE HE A HO' here?" 9/

And of course I do this: 10/

Aaron, of course, had been about to write down the note he'd taken from the previous class about Satan being a horrible leader etc., but all he had time to write down was CAUSE HE A HO.

The entire class - Aaron included - laughed so hard that one of the COs came in and yelled at us to shut the f*** up.

And, as one of them pointed out, "he ain't wrong." 12/

For the rest of the PL unit - and the rest of the semester - this became our standard answer to why a character was doing something stupid or dickish. 13/

Why won't Satan ask God's forgiveness? Cause he a ho.
Why won't Godfrey acknowledge Eppie as his daughter? Cause he a ho.
Why doesn't William Roper think he needs the rule of law? CAUSE HE A HO. 14/

Recall that Aaron's goal was to have an idea that everyone would want to write down. He not only got that, he set the theme for the entire rest of the class. 15/

Namely, just like real people, sometimes a character in the book does a bad or stupid thing cause he a ho. 16/

I love this story because to me it reflects one of the real joys of teaching, and teaching literature in particular. Did the CAUSE HE A HO incident raise the intellectual level of my classroom? Not especially. 17/

But it made my class more fun. It made our discussions more fun. It made us laugh. It brought the students closer together. It carved out a place of happiness in a deeply unhappy place. It helped us think about times when, as another student put it, "we've been a ho." 18/

I hope Aaron and his classmates are doing well. I hope they remember this time as fondly as I do. I hope they're still reading and thinking about the many great hos of the literary world. 19/

That's the end of that story. And for you #CanonChat folks, why does Heathcliff do all the dastardly things he does?

Cause he a ho.

Goodnight. /end scene