Class Behavior

I've been having some minor behavior problems in a middle school class--nothing significant, just boys being boys . . .

I do remember another boy, this one an American college student, who had a behavior problem. I was substitute teaching one day at my Wisconsin college when he came to class. He had on some stereo headphones and didn't take them off when class began. I had to interrupt the lesson to tell him to do so (take them off), which he reluctantly did. Needless to say, I was quite surprised that I had to tell him to do so.

Because I was curious and asking around about him, I heard about an incident a few weeks later. He was enrolled in the foods program, and in a cooking class he lost his temper.

He was heating some oil to make hard candy, and was goofing off. The oil burned. He got mad, and dumped the pan (of boiling oil) in the classroom kitchen sink.

The drain pipe under the sink was made of PVC (plastic), and so, of course, the hot oil melted it and the oil ran out onto the classroom floor.

He spent several hours of well-deserved punishment cleaning up the mess.