Humor, Learning, and Socialization in Middle Level Classrooms

When students are asked to identify characteristics that describe exemplary teachers, one of the first descriptors offered is, invariably, a sense of humor. Students point to their favorite instructors as teachers who made them in a variety of ways and made class fun. Glasser (1986), who includes fun in his list of the five primary needs of humans, along with survival, belonging, power, and freedom, indicates that all of our behavior is our constant attempt to satisfy one or more of those needs. He points out that a comedian is always a good teacher. He reminds us that the clear, sharp, but unexpected insights of a comic like Bill Cosby are so filled with learning that we cannot fail to laugh (29). Fun, according to Glasser, is difficult to define, but it is associated with laughter, play, and entertainment. It is the of the job of teaching that we don't have to do, but doing it may be the best part (28). Humor involves more than jokes and laughter, however; it involves a positive spin on reality as opposed to a negative one. The negative view deals with sarcasm and cynicism, but this negative side of humor is rarely appropriate in the classroom setting. Sarcasm and cynicism diminish learning, enhance stereotypes, and actually limit a person's perspective. Negative humor is the antithesis of learning; it is to remain close-minded. For example, the media often uses negative humor to portray characters as cool, hip, above the rest, or unaffected in order to provide a quick release mechanism for dealing with adversity. In the classroom, though, rather than adopting the glibness of negative humor, teachers could model the positive aspects of the humor of everyday life as a better way to deal with those adverse situations. If one of the tasks of adolescence is to