What Did You Say?
(Unbelievable Things That My High School Students Have Said)
This book
is a simple collection of the most entertaining and unbelievable things
that some of my students have said.
I have been teaching various classes of the Biological Sciences
at the High School level for 16 years.
At the time I began writing the book, I was in the middle of my
sixth year of teaching. I
originally was going to title the book There IS Such A Thing As A
Stupid Question. The
reason for that title was that in the majority of my college education
courses, I heard over and over again that, “There is no such thing as a
stupid question”. That may
be true, but I can tell you that some of the questions I have heard are
awfully close and quite funny.
Now, not all of the quotes I collected over the years were
questions; some were just statements.
That was the reason for the title change.
Often
people will ask me how I got the idea to start writing down what the
students would say. I have
talked to many educators, well on into their career, who would always
say that if they only would’ve written down what they have heard over
the years they would have a book as well.
This is how it happened. I
used to shoot in an indoor archery league with my wife.
We shot every Friday evening.
Of course part of the fun was to spend time catching up with our
friends. We would get there
to the shop plenty early and chat for 30 minutes or so before we went to
the lanes to shoot. During
that time somebody would ask how school was going.
I was in the middle of my second year of teaching, so I was very
excited to talk to anybody that would listen about my school day.
It would usually start of with me saying, “Listen to what this
kid said today.” I would
give a little set up, tell the story and we would share a laugh.
As time went on, it got to be a regular thing.
Someone would say, “Ok Grip, what did they say this week?”
I would then go into my mini-standup routine, make everyone
laugh, and then we would go shoot.
As I recall, I was in the midst of a day of multiple,
astonishingly dense statements and questions.
While in the middle of marveling at a particular set of words of
wisdom, I had this thought, “I am never going to remember all these come
Friday. I have to start
writing these down”. BING!
The light bulb went off, and the idea for the book was born.
As time
went on and I would hear quotes that I deemed “book worthy”, I would jot
them down on a legal pad.
Some of these quotes are aided in their humor by what I had to say in
response, so I have included a few of those as well.
Of course my students knew about “Grippa’s book of stupid
sayings”, and would frequently ask to hear a few or could read them
themselves. I usually would
keep my notes hidden and tell the students that if I let them see the
book, it would ruin the surprise, and I would continue to collect.
I felt it added to the mystery of what I had written down.
By the
time I wrote down the 175th quote, I thought I had enough
material to begin typing them up.
These are not the stereotypical or well-known teenage phrases.
You won’t read about how many times students “forgot” their book,
or how many times they say “like”, or “dude.” (I lost count).
These are truly original works of art.
You can’t make this stuff up.