Bad Teacher

I feel like a bad teacher for many reasons in any given day. Here's today's . . .
We are learning about operant conditioning and we talked about Super Nanny and The Dog Whisperer (both use a ton of behaviorism techniques - good for examples). My kids have been begging me for a week to watch a South Park episode in class that deals with the same concepts. (Plotline: Cartman's mom hires a variety of reality show behavior experts to try to correct his bad behavior.) I hate South Park. With a passion. But why should I let my own distaste for the show outweigh the potential of having my class like me for a day?

Against my better judgement, we cued up the show and watched in class today. I rationalized my decision by telling myself that the show is on cable television - so they have access to it at home. It's not like I was showing them porn.

It was pretty horrendous. The language in particular. (Not "F-word" bad . . . but pretty close . . . ). About three-quarters of the way through, I pondered out loud, "How do they get away with this language on cable television?!?" To which the students responded that the bad words are all bleeped-out when the show appears on TV. At that point, I had a few choice words of my own (on the inside, of course).

Lesson learned. No more South Park. Of course, assuming that I still have my job.