Humor in the Classroom

Montessori Life, 2006 by Fowler, Cathy

One of the great rewards of being a Montessori teacher is sharing laughter and humor with my students. Laughter is the "magic glue" that binds us together in the classroom. Being able to appreciate a child's joke and share a good laugh creates a special kind of communication and often diffuses potentially negative situations.

One day, two students were working together in my 3-6 language area. Avery and his friend Bautista were looking for work they could do together, and chose the magnetic letters. As I walked past them I heard Avery tell Bautista, "I'll be the red letters (consonants) and you be the blue letters." I suggested that if they wanted to make real words, they should use the red and blue letters together. Bautista told me he wanted to write the word sink, and then the two friends bent their heads together over the metal tray and went to work. A few minutes later, they brought the tray over to show me their writing. First, I saw sec, and I was glad to see Bautista's efforts, considering he started the year speaking only Spanish. Then I scanned the rest of the configuration and was shocked! Avery had carefully spelled out:

toylet and soopr poope hed

(toilet and super poopy head)

He was looking at me with a glint in his eye, waiting to see my reaction. What should I say? My initial thought was to give the talk about not using bathroom words at school. But this was the first time they had spontaneously done invented spelling and I didn't want to squash their enthusiasm. Instead, I burst out laughing and so did the boys!

Avery's spelling took me by complete surprise. As I was laughing I was also wondering what would motivate Avery, a sweet and compliant boy, to write something like that. Then I remembered he had just had a birthday. "Avery," I asked, "did you get a new Captain Underpants book for your birthday?" He looked at me with an expression of relief and understanding and told me yes, and he could read some of it by himself! I told him I had read some of the Captain Underpants books too and we agreed they were really funny. Then Avery and Bautista went back to the letters and created more words together for the next 30 minutes.

It's hard to believe that a child-hero who defends his school friends by turning into Captain Underpants has become a literary icon for our youngest generation, but he has. Children love references to babies in diapers, toilets, and things that go on in the bathroom. The stories are a good match to young children's developmental level of humor and I'm sure that's why they are so popular.

We know that humor is based on shared meaning. I tell my adult students in the Montessori teacher education program at Oklahoma City University that they must know about "kid culture." To be an effective teacher, you need to know what your students are watching and reading so you can relate to them. When your students are talking nonstop about the latest movie they've seen, and you have seen it too, then you can help them understand, clarify misconceptions, and use this shared meaning as a springboard to further learning. And you can laugh together!

CATHY FOWLER holds an AMS EC credential and teaches at Casady School in Oklahoma City, OK.