It is difficult to daw the line in teaching between humor, surprise, playing the trickster, et. al. Most of the good teachers I know use humor in the classroom somehow. This requires some distance between the teacher and the students, a kind of objectivity. Further, they have to decide how to respond to students when they say weird and sometimes hurtful things. After all students come to class with plenty of baggage: Their boyfriend or girlfriend said something to them they did not like, or their Mom yelled at them that day, or they are just in a rotten mood. Who knows? Regardless, one has to approach class with a kind of lightness of being ; a kind of zen place where what students say or discuss is important and of value but not necessarily an earth shattering idea nor is it directed at the teacher. The teacher has to decide who and what to praise and appraise. But getting back to my major point on developing some distance in the classroom I have an example. I had a student who was a very funny wise guy. He was very smart; so my job was to listen to what he said carefully but not to get excited if he said something that had a personal twist to it. Further he was popular and respected in class. During One class I showed the class a picture of Golda Meir and asked them if they knew who this was . The wise guy said, "Oh what a nice picture of your Mom." Anyone who has ever seen Prime minister Meir knows that she borders on being ugly. I paused in my response and said, "Oh no this is not a picture of my mother. She was not nearly as good looking as Meir." Everyone laughed.
HUmor and surprise are often mixed in together, intentionally or not. When I was teaching new teachers at SF State I required them to keep a weekly journal of at least five mistakes they made during each week for the first six weeks of their teaching stint. Their mouths dropped about a thousand feet. I had to somehow punch a hole in their idea that they had to be perfect. It had a wonderful effect with them. They were to share with each other, in small groups, their imperfections. It made their work easier to deal with and easier to accept who they were.
Whatever ideas or "methods" one uses, the idea is to lighten the load for everyone. Nobody has to repeat that teaching is a huge and important task. It is a kind of spiritual stewardship where you have to lead by example. Perhaps the greatest complement I have ever received as a teacher was one where one of my students, representing the rest of the class, said, "As for Dr. Beren he is the silliest teacher we have ever experienced."
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