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One of my favourite classes in high school was Biology.
We did exciting things in Biology.
Dissected worms.
Hid the teacher's notes.
Dissected deer eyes.
Checked each other's blood pressure.
Dissected frogs.
Typed each other's blood.
Gassed a bat and then drowned it, mistakenly thinking it was already dead. (One of the more traumatic days in Biology.)
Watched our teacher try to blow up the lab.
Slept through informative movies.
Watched our newly-engaged teacher try to remember what he was supposed to be teaching.
Dissected rats.
Grew weird things in petrie dishes.
We had fun.
And we were a good class.
Didn't cause too much trouble.
I will admit that we had a 'lost and found' board in our Biology lab.
But I'm sure that everyone has at least one of those.
Where else would you tack the frog tongues, frog legs, rat tails, and other things guaranteed to gross out the more squeamish members of the classroom?
But there is one thing that I remember vividly from all of my years in biology.
And only because of the unfortunate way in which my teacher chose to say it.
Maybe I should explain . . .
We were studying something very pithy: friction.
Did you know that friction is responsible for a lot of things?
Traction, for one.
Gripping.
Stopping.
In fact, if it weren't for friction, we would simply slip and slide around everywhere.
I know that sounds like fun, but it's really not. (Think Canadian streets for 9/10ths of the year.)
Our teacher explained it very well.
And yes, this was the teacher who was newly-engaged and only visited our planet for very short periods of time.
He told us, and I quote, “Friction is caused by two bodies rubbing together.”
Did you know that?
We didn't.
But you can be sure that we, and especially the boys in the classroom, never, ever, forgot it.
After that, not a day went past without someone making the selfless offer to help someone else study friction.
True story.
Biology class.
What would school life be like without it?And . . . ahem . . . where would life be like without it?
Ha ha! Too many bad jokes in there to count!
ReplyDeleteSmiling. Broadly. And my squeamish self is grateful that we did very little dissecting (characters excluded).
ReplyDeleteBet the boys in that class never forgot that friction lesson!
ReplyDeleteHeeheehee! Yep, two of anything that has mass rubbing together causes friction, but your teacher said it in the way sure you make you remember forever.
ReplyDeleteHaha, while this info is letter perfect it lend itself to too many misunderstandings. I envy your practical lessons, we were only taught the theory, boring.
ReplyDelete