If you ever find yourself teaching a room full of 6th graders, here’s some advice for you. I’m just trying to help you out here. In a room full of people that age -well, any age really, but in particular that age – certain sounds tend to come out of their bodies randomly. Oh sure, many more professional experienced teachers would ignore the sounds, but I can’t for two reasons… 1) the whole class is already responding, and 2) I think the sounds are funny.
So over the past few weeks this one boy has been burping a lot in class. Fortunately, that’s all he’s doing (as far as I can tell). And being a 6th grade boy, when he burps, people notice.
Since I’m the one in charge of the class (supposedly; I mean, my name is on a sign near the door), I feel that some sort of comment on my part is called for. So I did the only smart thing – I blamed the girl sitting next to him. I can’t think of too many more funny things than blaming the sweet, cute girl sitting next to the 6th grade guy when he burps.
It got even funnier when she slid her chair back a little (probably to escape the guy), and the chair made some sounds, which didn’t sound too good for her. So I blamed her for that too, and told her that from now on, I’d rather that she not eat on Tuesdays at all, until after my class was over. She then told me she had to eat breakfast, because breakfast was the most important meal of the day. To which I said, “Well, clearly that’s not working out very well for the rest of us.” HA HA HA
So if you ever find yourself in charge (allegedly) of a class full of 6th graders, anytime anything comes up (as it were), my advice is to blame the girl. I’m not saying follow that rule in other areas of life; don’t just go around blaming the girls or women in your life for whatever comes up, as it were. I’m just saying that it’s pretty funny, in this particular setting, to blame the girl for any and all gastrointestinal issues.
(For more gross humor, please see my post from March 16 of last year. I’m very much into the whole concept of blaming others whenever possible).
charley's blog 
The whole time I’m dreading to hear that she burst into tears & ran from the room…good thing she has a sense of humor because that can very well happen with the more sensitve ones of our persuasion…& I can picture you & the typical guy being clueless as to what just happened…!!
She was fine, Jean. This particular girl is sweet and cute, but also very strong and kind of funny herself. She was able to roll with it pretty well. However, there are other girls in the class that I wouldn’t have done this to!
I was in anticipation of WHAT type of noise was coming…..to hear it came from the top end of your student was a relief! And good for the girl to take it in stride and have fun with it 🙂 You are a funny teacher Uncle Charley!
You are one lucky guy…..averting a “scarred for life” impact on that girl. I wonder how many other girls walk into your room in fear and dread to know they might be the next girl you blame. Shame on you Charley!!! 🙂 My conclusion is that the girl who you blamed has a crush on you. Any attention is better than no attention….