Of spoonerisms and abusive language

I couldn't help but laugh in today's Literature class. For most of us, this was our first time hearing spoonerisms.


For starters (and those who haven't heard of that word before), the word "spoonerism" came from Dr Spooner, an Oxford don, whose name went down in history for a certain speech fault of his - he always mixed up the introductions of words.


Here are a few instances :


The Reverend Doctor was quoted asking his students to pray for the "queer old Dean."
(It should have been "dear old Queen". Perhaps his students might've prayed for him instead - Dr Spooner, the queer old Dean !)


Dr Spooner was quoted to have said
"I like nothing better than a long ride on a well-boiled icicle."
(It should've been "I like nothing better than a long ride on a well-oiled bicycle.")


And the mother of all spoonerisms, probably the very sequence of mistakes that earned him a term in the dictionary (people, try to guess what this means) :

"You have hissed all my mystery lessons and so have tasted a whole worm ! As a result, you must leave Oxford by the town drain !"

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On another note, after the Literature class was over and in the midst of Ms Meera's Contract Law class, one of the staff members, who was pressing the students for fees, went and used the word "bloody" in class. And he was in a serious fit of rage that he used it countless times. Well, it's not an expletive, but it's definitely offensive if used in class. Ms Sunbeam wouldn't have allowed that in her class !


I got up and said, "Bring that staff member to me."


Everyone was afraid. But there was a certain feeling inside me that righteousness had to prevail. This can't go on. Not in class. If you want to set an example to students, especially in class, then all dirty tactics should stay outside class, and perhaps, if possible, outside college.


Perhaps I was being sensitive. Perhaps my naïveté just surfaced. I know full well that all the lecturers and staff have to go through a great deal of pressure. I understand them full well. But what difference does it make ? I go through a great deal of pressure too ! I can just yell at anyone who offends me on the pretext that I've been through three losses and more calamities than practically anyone else in the A-Levels class. And do I yell at anyone using expletives ? No ! If I ever did use them, I used them to describe things ; never people.


Naïveté or not, to me it all boils down to one point : set a good example for the students, or stay out of class. Did they ever allow abusive language in schools ? Not in class, surely ! The same should prevail in institutions of higher education. If they say students gain quite a substantial bit of their knowledge from external influence, then they are right in many ways. Having said this, I wouldn't want to see our college students turning out into the uncivilised adults our predecessors from Generation Y have turned out to be.