I recently got this email from a group member:
I need to get someone else’s take on what happened to me a few months ago.
Some months ago, I was in the middle of a story with my class (Tripp’s Refrigerator story), Charlie Sheen was hungry and looking for some food. He spotted a restaurant and went in. The momentum was really going in this class, and the kids, who usually were checked out, were completely engaged, and the class was “flying.” When I asked them the name of the restaurant, after a few suggestions that were blase at best, one kid said “Hooters.” The boys were so excited by this possibility, and the energy was so focused on the story, in the TL, that I went with it. Keep in mind that this is a class of 8th grade boys, and the story contained nothing inappropriate about what he did in the restaurant. He went in and couldn’t find any food and left–I can’t even remember.
Here’s the problem. Just at that moment, a female colleague, a math teacher, was outside my classroom, and my door was open, and she overheard this. She poked her head in, basically interrupting my class, and said, “Excuse me, are you talking about Hooters?” And I responded: Well, we’re making up a story in the TL, and our character is Charlie Sheen, and we were thinking of a location that he was likely to visit.” She left, and long story short, she was all bent out of shape about it and was talking to colleagues about it.
I spoke with her the next day and assured her that the name was all we used, and that nothing inappropriate was being discussed. She basically didn’t hear me, and asked again that I not discuss Hooters in my class anymore, and I told her I wouldn’t. So I changed the name in our story, and we moved on.
In your professional opinions, was I out of line to accept the answer “Hooters”? Here we have a female 4%er, taking one word out of context, completely oblivious to how incredibly unusually successful of a class I was having. It really put me on guard for the rest of the year. From a CI perspective, it’s about getting in touch with the energy of your class, and going where that energy takes you as long as it’s appropriate and safe, but for some classes, you need to walk closer to that line in order to keep them engaged, at least that’s what I’ve found.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
I responded:
Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido came with Diana to my class in November when ACTFL was here in Denver. It was Carol who wouldn’t get off the topic of a proctologist being in the story (it was a Matava story designed around body parts). I allowed it bc Carol seemed to be having some fun with it but I don’t think my kids knew what a proctologist is so it was weird.
Many storytelling teachers know where the line for them personally is on this deal. I don’t really go “there”. For some reason I avoid all of that even if it is at the expense of interest and lift off. Perhaps it is because I know after all these years that teachers are on the prowl out there, and I know how litigious our society has become. You made the right decision, the manly decision. You allowed her the power by saying you won’t do it again. You avoided a possible reporting to the bosses. Actually she may have done that anyway.
I have a solution:
Don’t use Hooters again, as promised. Do use anything you want that is not Hooters, that is not over the line, and that is at the expense of no one (my basic rule). She can’t do anything. If she does, if she hears you again but this time it’s some raunchy female singer, and she gets offended, and she tells the bosses again, and spreads the word on you, it is she, not you, who will start looking really gossipy.
You made the right decision and you definitely handled it the right way, in my opinion. We get to make our own decisions in our own classrooms.