The Substitute's Revenge

Today was a fairly good day, neither totally easy, but most of the time also not difficult. I substituted for a math teacher I had substituted for in the past. I also had several interesting encounters with students.

When one is 70 years old, as I am, and has studied God knows how many subjects and done a lot of reading during one's life, one inevitably become so well-rounded all he can do is roll. That describes me fairly well. The reason I know a little bit about a lot of subjects is simply because I have been around a long time. But this sure comes in handy with students when you least expect it.

The first was not part of the usual repertoire I draw on when I need it. It just happened. The second was part of my repertoire.

In one of the math classes, many of the students set about immediately doing the math problem sheets I had passed out. One student, however, did not. This was one very big guy. I thought he was Samoan or Tongan. You would have to say he was fat, but it was the kind of powerful, muscular fat that some Polynesians have. He wore dark, dark sunglasses so his eyes couldn't be seen. His last name suggested that he might be Tongan.

I asked him if he was.

He replied that he wasn't, that he was part Vietnamese and part Chinese, and that lots of people thought at first that he was Tongan.

I commented that having lived years ago in a Samoan village, if I had been able to see his eyes I might have known. "As Shakespeare said," I mentioned, "The eyes are the windows of the soul."

He took off his glasses and looked at me. "I like Shakespeare," he said. I read him a lot." (This was coming from an 11th grader !) "The trouble with Shakespeare, though, is that it's always about love." And he mentioned "Romeo and Juliet."

"You've been stuck in the tragedies," I replied. "Try the histories or the comedies. Try Richard the Third." I explained that here was a character who was one of Shakespeare's most evil. Born a hunchback, Richard III wanted to take it out on the world. I told the student about the drowning of the princes in the Tower of London, and about a few of Richard's other deeds.

Then we got back on the subject of love in Shakespeare's plays again, and we talked about Beatrice and Benedict, and how Shakespeare often wrote about how love makes fools of us all. It isn't all about waking up, seeing your lover asleep, thinking this was death, and taking poison to join them.

And then back to the subject of good and evil as people embody these and express these themes. We talked about looks and how these are supposed to reveal moral character, and we laughed about how wrong this notion often is. "It comes originally from the ancient Greeks, who thought that a handsome or beautiful exterior revealed a person's moral character. If you ever have to write an essay about something in Shakespeare, you could write about this.," I told him. "Hamlet is supposed to be handsome and of good character, isn't he ? But what about Othello ? What did the English way back then think about Black people ? What did they think about Blackness ? But Othello was essentially a moral person, wasn't he ? He was just driven mad by jealousy."

And so on. Yes, it was a math class, but if a student learns something about anything, I've come to count the session as a successful one.

When we finished talking, the kid did his math. At least I had also given him something to think about that interested him.

And then we come to the story of Mao T'se Tung. A few of my facts here may be wrong, but the gist of my story is correct.

A student in another class sat at his desk doing nothing, the math work sheet in front of him. I asked him if he was going to do his work. He shrugged.

"Then I must tell you about Chairman Mao"

"Who ?"

"Chairman Mao, who was the leader of the Chinese communists at the end of World War II, and who was responsible for expelling the Chinese Nationalists to the island op Taiwan."

"Chairman Mao and his followers made what has been referred to as 'The Long March.' They walked 10,000 miles to the coastline of their country, driving the Nationalists out of the country.

He became a total dictator, but was almost worshipped by many of the people. He had a number of sayings. These were collected and printed in what became known as 'Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.' Everybody, it seemed, carried a copy of this book, and quoted Chairman Mao often.

"One of his sayings was that "A journey of 10,000 miles begins with but a single step.

"What is your single step with this assignment ? It is to open your book and look at your math problems. Please make this happen now."

As pompous as telling the story may sound, it usually works. The kid in question not only started on his problems, but finished them all before the end of the class.