would it have been better not to know? yes.

I used a student suggested roll call question last week: if one day you found yourself in jail, what did you most likely do to get there? The answers I got covered a spectrum of things likely to make Ms. Adams uncomfortable, from the slightly disconcerting (”Shoplifting? I don’t know? I just don’t like paying for things?”) to the irritating (”Probably for standing up for something I believed in.”), to the ohgodohgodohgod (”Probably…..torturing and killing someone. Yeah. Someone who made me mad or something.”).

Then we got into the sticky situation of getting caught for something they do on a regular basis. For example, “I’d probably be in a fight. Like last weekend. That cop…man. What was his deal?” Or, “DUI, DWI, one of those. Probably doing something stupid like hitting a pedestrian.” Lots of underage drinking, breaking and entering, and — that perennial favorite — trespassing. 

Trespassing did you say? The top of the Alico building? Waco rights of passage (even though I’ve yet to make the climb), blah blah blah. Then, one of my favorite little deviants goes there:

“You know what another fun building to break into downtown is? That one with the Olive Branch. It’s so easy too! You climb up the fire escape to the third floor and climb in the broken window. They tried to close it up once but…”

You get the picture. My student has been regularly breaking into my apartment building. Terrific. 

Filed under corrupting the youth | Comment (1)