Thursday, January 15, 2009

Chewbacca Controversy

I was in the same class as yesterday.  The teacher's wife had a baby.  Today we got word of the usual statistics--name, birth date, weight, etc.  This was written on the board so all the students could see.

6th period was incensed: "But we voted.  Chewbacca won."

The child was given a nice, ordinary name.  A name that is probably one of the top ten boy's names.  Nothing wild.  Nothing crazy.  But apparently the teacher had taken naming suggestions from his students, and the classes voted on their choice.  6th period took this "vote" seriously.

"Well, you know, the wife has veto power."

I was trying to bring them back around.  Did they honestly think that their teacher would name his child Chewbacca?  One student just wouldn't let it go.

"We had a 3/4ths majority.  We override."

Um, seniors, so they are taking government and should know that it's a 2/3rds majority to override, but never mind.  I wasn't arguing the point further (as if I have any say in any of this).  I went up to the board, erased "Chewbacca", and I rewrote the actual first name (the one student had crossed it out).  Then I insisted that it was time to get to work.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.