RAH vs. REP

R-A-H are three well known letters in the Sullivan family. They were made famous by a speech my dad gave to my brother Dan when he was in junior high and getting into a little too much trouble. "R" stands for respect. "A" stands for attitude. "H" stands for honesty. Now say it together...RAH, like a cheer. It became famous partly because we would make fun of my dad for being so cheesy and partly because it became a baseline for what our parents expected of us. RAH still gets a shout out at least once year, usually when we're all together on vacation or over the holidays. It must have been a damn good speech because Dan is one of the most respectful, well adjusted, honest guys around.

I have been teaching English 4 nights a week and I have inherited 2 of the worst behaved sections of boys. At the end of last week one of the classes was out of control. It got to the point that I literally made them sit in silence for half the class. So I decided that this week I would start class with a speech that set the baseline for what I expected. I went with a Spanish version of RAH = R-E-P, as you see above. Respeto, have some respect for me and the class. Echale ganas, show some desire to learn English. Participacion, I don't care how much English you know, but participate in the class activities. At the end I told them they were invited to stay and learn if they could comply with REP, otherwise they could go to a study hall with the director. Not one kid got up, even though some had asked to be preemptively kicked out before class. In fact, at one point in the middle of class they were getting loud and I stopped and looked at them (you know like teachers do) and one kid said, "Be quiet, 'R', respeto." Maybe REP with catch on like RAH.

I think all teachers deal with this on some level. Check out this short bit that I heard on NPR, entitled, "A Professor's Diatribe...Set to Music."

The picture above is of Donaldo, I wrote about him the first night I was here in Miacatlan. He is in my Tuesday/Thursday class. They're always so much more likeable outside of class. He reminds me a little of my brother Dan.