Young children are really fun to be around because they are honest to the core and always speak their mind. Teachers on the other hand usually get lots of questions, many of which can be pretty silly, but they are always expected to come up with the right answers and satisfy the children’s curiosity.
One teacher shared on Facebook a fun story of how she taught her deaf students that passing gasses was actually audible to the hearing world after one of her first graders slipped a fart. The explanation and the whole conversation are hilarious and we are so happy we got to read it.
Below is the conversation which was posted on Facebook by Anna Lind Thomas. Passing gas is a life lesson that’s already hard to grasp as a child – add a loss of hearing, and the concept is nearly impossible to comprehend!
She wrote:
“Today in 1st grade, one of my Deaf students farted loudly in class and the other students turned to look at them. The following is a snippet of a 15 minute conversations that happened entire in American Sign Language among the group of Deaf students and I.*
Kid 1: Why are they looking at me?
Me: Because they heard you fart.
Kid 1: Whhhhat do you mean?!?!
Me: Hearing people can hear farts.
Kid 2: *Totally horrified* Wait, they can hear all farts?!”
The confusion continued:
“Me: Well no. Not all farts but some of them yes.
Kid 3: How do you know which farts they can hear and which farts they can’t?
Me: Hmmm … you know how sometimes you can feel your butt move when you fart? A lot of those they can hear. But if your butt doesn’t move it’s more likely they didn’t hear it.
Kid 1: TELL THEM TO STOP LISTENING TO MY FARTS! THAT IS NOT NICE!
Me: Hearing kids can’t stop hearing farts, it just happens.”
That’s when a novel idea struck the student – they were going to stop tooting altogether!
“Kid 2: I just will stop farting then.
Me: Everyone farts, it is healthy. You can’t stop.
Kid 3: Wait, everyone? Even my mom?
Me: Yep.
Kid 2: My Dad?
Me: Yep.
Kid 1: …. You?
Me: Yep.
Kids: *Laugh hysterically*
Kid 1: So you can hear and small all the farts?
Me: Some of the farts, yes. Not all of them.
Kid 2: Can hearing people see farts?”
Mrs. Anna never thought she would talk and teach about passing gas during her lesson, but there she was, and she found the whole thing interesting.
“Kid 3: Yeah. Green smoke comes out of their butt, I saw it on TV.
Me: That doesn’t happen in real life.
Kid 1: What?! Ugh, I don’t understand farts.
… I went to college for 8 years to have these conversations.”
The conversation ended with lots of laughter. It was a very educational day, as students learned a life lesson, and that’s that farts can be loud enough so other people can hear them.
As for the rest of us, today’s lesson is to teach us how to sign fart in sign language. See it in the video below.