I just finished teaching for the week, which is awesome, and there was a most amusing moment at the end of class. I don't exactly remember why, but someone mentioned Spontaneous Human Combustion in passing (we were discussing the political system in 1984). One of the other students asked what it was, and her friends gleefully described the way that people catch fire for no reason, and burn from the inside. Apparently the girl in question is quite credulous.
The student asked me if they were telling the truth, and I said "Sure, but it's not very common. I've only seen about three..."
My brain made me pause there, while it looked for the words "cases written up in books..."
In the meantime, a couple of students (including some of the less credulous ones) freaked out at the idea that I'd seen three people spontaneously combust. I did confess that I'd seen 3 cases in books that looked genuine, but the panic had already started in the poor student. Her friends started winding her up, that she was going to spontaneously combust in the weekend. It didn't help that some student had burnt something in the cooking lab across the hall, so when the students went to leave they had another chance to torment her, "We can smell you combusting! That's totally coming from you!"
Hee hee. Mean, but hilarious from a bunch of Year 13s.
No comments:
Post a Comment