Prank
Relationship Between
Students & Teachers!
By Nusrat

Heads teeming with superb ideas are put together and an outburst of new plans to crush the opponents are poured forth. Then as the victim, completely unaware of the great peril (!) that is in store for him/her walks in, a hushed silence quickly prevails and the plotters, sit quietly with a contented smile on their faces waiting for the signal. Then…as the signal flashes, the plan is put into direct action and voila! Immediate success!

Readers must be wondering what serious issue I am talking about, but actually I am referring to one of the very common classroom scenes where these "plotters" are the students and their 'victims', none other than their teachers. And such issues are never serious. In fact they are very trivial and are almost always taken lightly and greeted with laughter. Sometimes, even the teachers join in this light amusement!

Playing pranks on teachers are usually common among school children, usually pre-teens and teenagers, who never mean to insult or disrespect the teacher in any way, by such actions. As a matter of fact, they take playing pranks on the teachers as a funny and special (and also weird!) way of showing their love and respect for their teachers. It is also seen that children prefer playing most of their pranks on the less-strict teachers. This is not because they take advantage of their leniency, but it is mostly because children tend to like these teachers more. Nevertheless, the classroom corners, their regular punishment places hardly ever remain empty. Most probably teachers also find that this is the ideal reply for the offense (!) they have committed.

"Pranksters": a word rather common in the dictionary of the teachers who would define them as little devils always up to some mischief or the other. Truly, there are always a handful of such troublemakers in each class (to the utter dismay of the teachers), who always find their way to one corner of the classroom and have hardly attended any class lectures sitting in their seats. Previously students who were publicly punished and reprimanded in this manner were taunted and ridiculed by the others, but nowadays it is more commonly seen that these troublemakers are appreciated and admired (to an extent) by their fellow classmates, because they bring some element of fun and laughter into the otherwise tiresome lessons. They will always come up with some brilliantly silly jokes or occasional quips about certain hilarious things that is sure to stir up the dull and weary classroom and transform it into one booming with laughter. Sometimes these pranksters are even willing to act out some of these funny situations. "Miss, did you see that completely hilarious ad on TV?" And with this commences a series of comical performances, which is readily greeted with laughter and applauds. In some extreme cases, these 'great' actors will mimic some equally 'great' Bangla cinema actor and mock some ridiculous scene out of a Bangla cinema. These pranksters very well know what to do to distract the teacher and (thankfully!) divert the attention of the class from the dreary lessons. Most of the time, the teachers do not get angry, but rather laugh out loud along with the students. Some of them even find such antics of the students rather entertaining and they, just like the students, get a small break from the whole day's tiring routine.

Since the usual bunch of pranksters is always marked out by the teachers, these smart pranksters often have a different approach to their plans. Seldom do the teachers know that it is not always the same bunch of children involved in these pranks. Many a times it is those angel-faced, well-behaved, goody-goody little children who, with their innocent wide eyes and modest look on their faces, can easily mislead any teacher into believing them. They are usually very well versed and extremely logical and convincing. So their confident words like, "Miss we have been doing written works from the morning and we are soooo tired", coupled with the pathetic faces made by the 'actors' of the class and of course backed up with repeated pleas of "Miss please give us a free class", are enough to convince anyone that the whole class, burdened with so much of work, is on the verge of dying!

Most of the time students try to goad the teachers into postponing and canceling tests. Usually a good amount of reasoning and convincing is required here in order for the plan to succeed. So this difficult part is always left to the second group of pranksters i.e. the "angel-faced devils", who will soon engage themselves in a war of logic with the teachers and as usual their wild and incredible reasoning will lead them out of the battlefield with triumphant smiles on their faces. Sometimes, if they are lucky, absurd statements like "Miss, it's so and so's birthday today and we possibly can't give a test on such a special day" can also get them through.

If we look from a regular prankster's point of view then it is found that it actually is not as easy to play pranks on teachers as it may sound. Teachers, who happen to be a lot more experienced than the students can often read their minds and find out before hand what they are planning. But usually they play along with the student's pranks and even laugh along with them. Many a time they do keep the students' requests of giving a free class and of postponing tests.

And that's not all, there is much more to the never-ending list of pranks that students love to play on their teachers. Some of them as I have mentioned above and other even funnier and interesting ones, which I dare not reveal due to the fear of being throttled and maybe even beheaded by fellow pranksters!

N.B. This article is dedicated to the "pranksters" of my class (guys you know who you are!).