Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Bad teacher

I had a lesson with one of the kids I teach the other day, we'll call him Johnny, who I had a regretful thing happen with. What happened was this. We were conversing about hiccup remedies seeing as how I had them, and he talked about drinking the water upside down. I told him about my father's remedy to "push" like you were having a hard time pooping while holding your breath as long as you could, and usually that would stop the hiccups. Then I noticed that the vein was popping out on his forehead and his face was turning red.

"Hey, be careful you're face is turning red."

"I'm pushing." he says

"Well you have to watch it because you can faint like that. I remember showing my father how I could turn my face purple and then waking up on the floor with a big bump on my head from falling down."

"You fainted? How long were you fainted?"

"Oh, about 30 seconds I guess." and I had a niggle of a concern.

Why was he asking me that. Oh wait, the fainting. Right, he's fourteen years old and I've just talked about how to make yourself faint.

The words I had spoken were like a snake that had slithered out and wrapped around his brain. I looked up to see his face turning purple.

"Johnny, stop that. That's not good for you, and we're having a lesson."

He stopped but I caught him doing it again later during the lesson.

When I left, he was alone in the house. I knew exactly what he was going to be doing in his bedroom. And yes I do feel guilty about it.

6 comments:

_Psycho said...

Hehe, funny story ;)

I would not worry too much, I never heard of someone dying because he was pushing =P

St. Dickeybird said...

Why do I suddenly have the urge to try that, even though I don't have hiccups?

dantallion said...

LOL - I did the same thing when I was a kid - the other neighbourhood kids thought it was funny how I could make my face turn purple. So I obliged them. And proceeded to swan dive face first into the dirt.

Ah, good times.

epicurist said...

I just tried it too at work and a co-worker stopped, looked at me and walked away.

PĂȘcheuse said...

And I thought that was MY generation. We would take 10 big, deep breaths (hyperventilate) then hold our breath and go out like a light; however, we would have a circle of friends around to catch us. Then we were told it killed brain cells.

Adam said...

this is so random. what is it that you teach again?