The (Substitute) Teacher (Day 13): The Truth

As I do more and more teaching, I discover not only fitting into the role better, but that this might just be the right job for me (full-time teaching, that is). I mention this right now, therefore: I am an introvert. My voice doesn't carry that loudly and I prefer to keep it a low profile. So it is kinda funny I'm considering teaching at all: you have to maintain order in the classroom as you teach your subject to your students. If you're perceived as soft or too easy going, kids will eat you alive.

So, teaching Physical Education means you have to keep on your guard. Through promotion of healthy bodies, students seem to consider a substitute as a rare opportunity to do whatever they want to do. As this happened to be the second time I subbed at this particular school and therefore recognized certain students, I knew what to expect. I felt I was more assertive this time around compared to my first time, yet I still maintained a sense of ease: I want to exhibit a sense that I'm easy going and approachable for a talk. This method worked out just fine for most of the periods I taught, as the kids went through their daily stretches and runs.

The final period proved to be the troublesome one. They seemed to prefer anarchy with their regular teacher out for the day. This period was where I got more forceful, shouting out at the students for misbehaving or not following instructions; to be frank, it was a bit draining to have been forced to do that due to their wild streak. This period was meant to be used for students to get a jump start on homework or ask for assistance on problems they had; instead, students preferred playing with their pens enacting five finger fillet, talking, or being downright disruptive.

In any case, the period was survived and the rest of the day went comfortably. Near the end of the school day, I was looking back at it and reflected that I did a better job in asserting myself than my past jobs. However, honesty is found in even the young, as I found out this day. A student from one of my earlier classes, who happened to be in this period too, approached me at the end of the day, thanked me for subbing, and was good enough to impart the following critique:

"You're a nice sub, but you need to be more forceful."

After subbing for a good amount of days and getting positive feedback from administrations of those schools, it was humbling to be reminded that the students ultimately get the final say in a teacher's performance. The good student wants to learn and therefore wants to avoid the distraction other students may present. The bad student doesn't want to be there and the job falls on the teacher to show the reasons the student needs to be there. If I can't be assertive enough and juggle the right amount of easiness and friendliness, I really have no business teaching.

I thanked the student for her honesty and told her I would work on it. We'll see how it works out the next time I sub.

The Social Experiment

I was checking out my subscriptions on YouTube today and I came upon the latest episode of Ray William Johnson (by the way, if you haven't subscribed to his channel, do so if you like to laugh!). In this episode, he discusses two social experiment videos in which a male and a female each ask random strangers if they would like to have sex with each other. Curiosity peaked after Ray analyzed both videos (and poked fun at them) and so I went and viewed the original, uploaded by whatever (yup, the channel's name) to view in depth the hilarity. All through this hilarious social experiment, I realized some key differences and reactions that each individual faced, and so here, I want to give my thoughts on...from the perspective of both a guy and a human being.

Men:

Boy...we suck.

Or maybe women are bigger...uh...Anyways, this poor guy gets rejected not once, not twice, not thrice, but 100 times! Ok, so maybe asking someone for sex up-front isn't the most romantic way to get with someone. But let's be honest: how many of you ladies still love romance? Wait, you do? Why do I get rejected then?!

Back on topic...let's analyze this dude for a bit. Ignore the fact that he's asking random strangers to have sex with him. Does he sound confident to you? To me, he doesn't. It's almost like he's embarrassed to be asking the question. There are a few instances where he does a follow-up question or a little bit of teasing. There's even a few instances where I thought this guy would get punched by a boyfriend of one of these girls; yes, he even asked some of these people if they were a couple before proceeding with the experiment! But overall, the guy seems a bit bashful when asking the question. There's a bit of hesitation and a few uh's (which seem to be prevalent in speech nowadays, alongside like), almost like he's dreading the answer.

But as it has been pointed out, the dude was rejected 100 times. The reactions from the women ranged from "Are you serious?" and simple no to more hilarious ones like laughter or throwing a cup of water in the guy's face. Now ladies, let's look at this guy: he's not bad-looking. Some might even say he has quite the good looks. So, with that being said...would you have accepted his invitation for sex?

Women:

Boy...we suck.

Ok, so the key difference between this miss versus the dude from the previous video is confidence. Or maybe it's a sense of fun. Whereas the dude did a bit of follow-up to the big question, the miss resorted to the ol' bag of tricks: teasing, playful looks, and displaying her assets. Her wardrobe helped in this aspect, a tank top exposing her belly button and short shorts compared the her counterpart's tamer look of knee-long shorts and t-shirts.

The sample size is also shorter with only 14 men in total asked if they would like to have sex with her. Maybe there wasn't a whole lot of confidence after all, or more likely, a 50% success rate at getting a guy to answer yes to sex suggested she quit while ahead. Of course, there may be some more unsavory folks she asked and for the purpose of keeping it on track, the video editing team kept it out. Of her successes and fails, the first one was full of hilarity as the old man literally flipped out and called the cops on her.

But like I said, we suck. Seven men did a quick look around, asked "Are you sure," and ultimately or immediately said yes. Guys, what does this suggest of us? Are we sex hungry? Is our sex drive that active? No comment in my part though! ;)