Traffic Needing to explain situational irony to my students yesterday, I told the following story:

I once had a student who almost always came tardy to first period. I raised the issue with her, and she complained that the traffic on her way to school is very bad. I suggested that since she knows that traffic is bad, she should leave home earlier. She responded that she cannot leave earlier because she can't get ready that fast. I suggested that she set her alarm earlier. "I already wake up as early as possible," she exclaimed.

I couldn't figure out what that could mean, so I stopped trying to reason with her and called her mom. I told her that her daughter was often late to first period.

"Well," she said, "The traffic is very bad..."

The happy thing about this is that the students laughed when I told it. One occupational hazard high school teachers face is being susceptible to the belief that teenagers are exceptional creatures of pure unreason. Both this story and my students' response to it remind me that teenagers are just people, and more like other people than not.  ¶ 8:20 AM