Class Participation is Supposed to be a Good Thing, Right?

"Oh, oh, oh, Mr Kotter!"

My son came home from school earlier this year telling me that one of his teachers, Mr. S., had put a limit on the number of questions he could ask in a day.

"How many questions are you allowed?" I asked.

"He only lets me have 3 questions a day!"  (Keep in mind that it is a one-hour class.)

Since I am a teacher, too, I explained that teachers need to let everyone ask questions, we have a certain amount of material we need to cover so we don't get behind, etc.

"But all of my questions were ON TOPIC!"

I think that statement is very telling of his teachers' most common complaint over the years, in that he is always going off on tangents.

A few weeks later, Boo told me that he thinks Mr. H. had been talking to Mr. S.  I asked why he thought that and he said, "Because Mr. H. is limiting my questions now, too." 

"So, you are only allowed 3 questions in Mr. H.'s class now?"

"No.  Mr. H. gives me 7 a day."

I burst out laughing so bad I probably had snot fly out my nose.  I couldn't help but ask him, "How the hell many questions have you BEEN asking that your limit is now 7?!?!"

"But all my questions in that class were on topic, too!"

A few weeks after that, Mr. S. and I were exchanging some emails and laughing about the whole thing.  He was telling me that it was all in good fun and that they were using sarcasm to get him to think about what he was asking before things fell out of his mouth.

Boo is lucky to be in an environment where he is so comfortable that his teachers can use humor and sarcasm as instructional tools.  We will miss his school when he graduates.