Today I lived one of the episodes that will be sure to make it into every “teaching highlights” story that I tell from now until I expire. I had a busy schedule today with four classes – and we had lots of guests today walking around the school because it was an “open school day”, where parents could drop by and visit the classes to see what their students were up to.
During my third class with the first year students, I noticed that there was a little more giggling than usual. A couple of students at the side of the class were laughing, and I saw one of them stealing a glance at my crotch while I was teaching. Oh, no – my teaching nightmare! Could I be teaching with my fly open?
Teaching with your fly open is one of those stories you tell all your friends at school – can you believe that Mr. So-and-so is so old and unaware that he didn’t notice his zipper was open in class? Was this my fate too? Had I been teaching that long that I was insensitive to the status of my zipper?
Thank god they have podiums in front of the classroom. I did a quick sidestep behind the podium, and waited a little while before casting a quick glance down at my textbook, and then continued my glance down to my pants, and sure enough – the zipper was O-PEN!
My next move was good. I waited until Mr. Harada stepped to the back of the class to ask a kid some tough questions, and then I casually reached down past my textbook and zipped that thing up.
Final damage report: minimal. The way my slacks were designed, even if they are unzipped the front flap overlaps the back in such a way as to provide a lot of coverage. The students probably only saw the plastic strip of the zipper at the top. Also, only one or two students noticed, other students were asking later what happened, but since nobody saw me zip up the general consensus was that the students that saw it were just making it up. Still, it was a scary moment, especially with all the pervert problems that Japan has.
More good news was that the incident happened before any classes that had parents attending, so that was a relief. Later in the day I did have a class with Harada sensei, and a pretty good crowd of student mothers showed up. I double-checked the zipper before I started that class.
Other than that, my day went pretty well. I had a light lunch today, and I think we’ll probably be having a light lunch when Kuniko gets home. Hopefully she’ll be home in time to watch one of our favorite TV shows, “London Hearts”.
