3 A Teachable Moment

3 A Teachable Moment Before she was our principal, Mrs. Stoker was a stand-up comedian.* She's always cracking jokes. But not this time. When we got to the all-porpoise room, she was standing on the stage with a serious look on her face. Everybody was buzzing. But not like bees. That would be weird. I knew what Mrs. Stoker

在成为我们校长之前，斯托克夫人是一位单口相声演员。她总是开玩笑。 但这次不是这样。当我们来到全是海豚的房间时，她正站在舞台上，一脸严肃。 每个人都在议论纷纷。但不像蜜蜂。 那会很奇怪。我知道斯托克夫人

was going to tell us. She was going to say that pulling pranks can be dangerous. Somebody could get hurt. Stuff like that. Grown-ups hate it when kids pull pranks. "We might get suspended," said Neil. "She's going to hang us upside down?" I asked. "No, dumbhead!" said Neil. "We might get kicked out of school." Oh. I knew that. Mrs. Stoker held up her hand and made a peace sign, which means shut up. "Simmer down," she said. We simmered down. "It has come to my attention..." she began. Uh-oh. Anytime a grown-up says something has come to their attention, you know you did something wrong. That's the first rule of being a kid. "It has come to my attention that the fourth graders like to pull pranks on their teacher." "Here it comes," whispered Alexia. "We're going to jail." "And I want to tell you," continued Mrs. Stoker, "that I think that's great!"

告诉我们。她想说搞恶作剧是很危险的。 有人会受伤的。诸如此类。 大人们讨厌孩子们搞恶作剧。 “我们可能会被停课，”尼尔说。 “她要把我们倒挂起来？”我问。 “不，笨蛋！”尼尔说。 “我们可能会被学校开除。” 哦。我知道。斯托克太太举起手，做了一个和平的手势，意思是闭嘴。 “冷静点，”她说。我们冷静下来。 “我注意到了……” 她开始。哦。任何时候一个成年人说他们注意到了什么，你就知道你做错了什么。 这是当孩子的第一准则。 “我注意到四年级学生喜欢捉弄他们的老师。” “它来了。”亚历克西娅小声说。 “我们要进监狱了。”“我想告诉你，”斯托克太太继续说，“我认为这太棒了！”

WHAT?! "You liked our prank?" I shouted. "Yes!" replied Mrs. Stoker. "You kids thought about your prank. You planned it out. You worked

什么? !“你喜欢我们的恶作剧？”我叫道。 “是的！”斯托克太太回答。 “你们这些孩子想过你们的恶作剧。 你已经计划好了。你工作

together as a group. You used critical thinking skills and blah blah blah blah. This as a teachable moment!" Ugh. Grown-ups love teachable moments. "You kids have given me an idea," continued Mrs. Stoker. "April Fools' Day is next Friday. To celebrate, we're going to have a weeklong contest between the students and the teachers at Ella Mentry School to see who can pull the best pranks. We'll call it... The Prank War!" Everybody started buzzing again. Having a prank war sounded like a great idea. I started thinking about all the pranks we could pull on Miss Banks. This was going to be fun! But then I remembered something. Teachable moments are never fun. They're just another way for grown-ups to trick us into learning stuff. What a scam! "What's in it for us?" I shouted. "Well," said Mrs. Stoker, "if you students win The Prank War, we'll have a big candy party! What do you say to that?" "YAY!" we all shouted, which is YAY backward.

作为一个团体在一起。你运用了批判性思维技巧等等。 这是一个受教育的时刻！”啊。 成年人喜欢受教育的时刻。 “你们这些孩子给了我一个主意，”斯托克太太继续说。 “下周五是愚人节。 为了庆祝，我们将在艾拉门特瑞学校的学生和老师之间进行为期一周的比赛，看谁的恶作剧做得最好。 我们叫它……恶作剧之战！”大家又开始议论起来。 搞一场恶作剧大战听起来是个好主意。 我开始想我们可以对班克斯小姐开什么玩笑。 这将会很有趣！但后来我想起了一件事。 受教育的时刻从来不是有趣的。 它们只是大人们哄骗我们学习东西的另一种方式。 真是个骗局！“这对我们有什么好处？”我叫道。 “好吧，”斯托克夫人说，“如果你们学生赢了恶作剧大战，我们将举行一个盛大的糖果派对！你对此有什么看法？”“耶！”我们都喊着，也就是向后的耶。

"And if the teachers win The Prank War," said Mrs. Stoker, "they'll get a hot tub for the teachers' lounge." "WOW!" all the teachers shouted, which is MOM upside down. "And to get everybody into the spirit of The Prank War," said Mrs. Stoker, "on April Fools' Day, I will wear a fake nose and glasses." A fake nose and glasses? That sounded kind of lame to me. "That's all you're gonna do?" somebody shouted. "Yes," said Mrs. Stoker. "It will be funny." Not to me. Our old principal, Mr. Klutz, used to do cool stuff to get us into the spirit of things. "You should paint your head orange," shouted Michael. "Mr. Klutz did that one time." "Remember when he climbed up the flagpole?" asked Neil. "He hung there upside down dressed like Uncle Sam." "That was hilarious," said Ryan. "Remember when he kissed a pig on the lips?" Mr. Klutz was nuts. One time he married a turkey. That was before he retired.

“如果老师们赢了恶作剧大战，”斯托克太太说，“他们将在教师休息室里得到一个热水浴缸。” “哇！”所有的老师都喊道，这是妈妈颠倒了。 “为了让大家都融入恶作剧战争的精神，”斯托克太太说，“在愚人节那天，我会戴上假鼻子和假眼镜。” 假鼻子和眼镜？我觉得这听起来有点逊。 “这就是你要做的？”有人喊道。 “是的，”斯托克太太说。“会很有趣的。” 对我来说不是。我们的老校长，克鲁茨先生，曾经做过一些很酷的事情让我们进入事物的精神。 “你应该把你的头涂成橙色，”迈克尔喊道。 “克鲁茨先生就这么干过一次。” “还记得他爬上旗杆的事吗？”尼尔问。 “他倒挂在那里，穿得像山姆大叔。” “太搞笑了，”瑞恩说。 “还记得他亲吻一头猪的嘴唇吗？”克鲁茨先生疯了。 有一次他娶了一只火鸡。 那是在他退休之前。

"He was so funny," whispered Andrea. "Mrs. Stoker could never fill his shoes." HUH? That's also HUH backward. Why would you want to fill somebody's shoes? What would you fill them with, anyway? Everybody was buzzing, until Mrs. Stoker told us to simmer down. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I'm not Mr. Klutz. And I'm not doing any of those things." "BOOOOOOOOOO!" Everybody started booing.

“他太有趣了，”安德烈低声说。 “斯托克太太永远也代替不了他。” 嗯?这也是逆向的。 你为什么要顶替别人的位置？ 你会用什么来填充呢？ 大家都很兴奋，直到斯托克太太叫我们冷静下来。 “对不起，”她说，“但我不是克鲁茨先生。 我没有做这些事。” “BOOOOOOOOOO !”每个人都开始喝倒彩。