Some reasons to love teaching

Teaching Doctor Faustus today offered me the opportunity to:

1. Make sleepy 19-year-olds perform as the Seven Deadly Sins. Lechery was particularly entertaining.
2. Do an aikido roll in the middle of class (to illustrate the way in which Jude Law was forcibly shat out of Gluttony's body in the 2002 Young Vic production).
3. Scream at my students in indignance and horror when it became clear that none of them has seen "Monty Python's Meaning of Life": "GET SOME CULTURAL LITERACY, PEOPLE!!! READ!!! SEE MOVIES!!! LISTEN TO MUSIC!!! EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS SO I CAN ALLUDE TO THINGS IN CLASS!"

Screaming notwithstanding, it was an enjoyable class for everybody. It's a good job, this.