The Infamous Projectile Rule

Today I will discuss the projectile rule as it applies to high school students.The motivation of a student to learn is inversely related to his willingness to pick things up and throw them. For a creative yet lazy student, there is no shortage of things to throw- paper balls, pieces of chalk, staples, his shoes, etc.Two things occur whenever a student throws something:

1. Their eyes light up with such childlike delight that you feel immense pity looking at their faces and knowing, quite possibly, that this could be the greatest moment of their life.(When this exact same moment reoccurs five minutes later, with the same look of wonder, you really start to worry.)

2. The launching of their chosen projectile always has a malevolent bent- unless they are trying to hit the garbage can, which only serves to feed their huge self-important ego. I would die happy if, just once, one of my students threw a piece of paper toward nothing in particular and said, "I just wanted to see it fly through the air."

Sigh.