An Interesting Indication

Each class I teach as a substitute teacher at the high school starts the same way. The bellrings, the students enter the classroom, and we size each other up.

What will the coming hour be like ? I wonder. Am I goiing to have trouble with any of the students ? Or will they settle down and do the assignment their regular teacher has left for them.

I have watched very carefully during the past few weeks to see how I can predict. As odd as it seems, I have found an indicator that seems to be accurate.

I have written elsewhere in this blog about the way students in this high school dress. The girls tend to wear blue jeans so tight they must have had trouble getting into them before leaving for school. With the boys, it is quite the opposite. They weae baggy blue jeans that hang halfway off their butts. Usually their boxer shorts are showing. This is the "jailhouse style." Prisoners in many California prisons are not allowed belts for fear that they would use them to commit suicide by hanging. Without the belts, their pants are constantly falling off and need to be pulled up.

In high school, these baggy blue jeans are usually decorated. The back pockets are almost always decorated with with fancy embroidered designs.

And here is the indicator. In classes where the students are very bright and hard-working, one may find one, two or even none of this embroidery on the back pockets of the boys' jeans. In ckasses where the boys are rowdy, not so bright, and not interested in their studies, almost all the boys sport jeans with embroidered designs on the back pockets.

One can guess that the intelligent boys are more sure of themselves and don't care as much about fitting in and being accepted by their peers. They place less value on conformity. When I see a class in which the boys don't have embroidered designs on the back pockets of their blue jeans, I know I am going to have a relatively easy time dealing with them.