Students,
Today I will teach about the philosophical concept known as Occam’s Razor.
First, I will have to go over the Latin phrase “lex parsimoniae” or law of parsimony. This will lead to the definition of the word ‘succinctness’. And after listening to your long winded explanations that always start with “Well, you see Ms. Carroll, it was like this…” I am not holding out much hope.
But back to Occam and his razor. I hope that we can apply the concept of picking the simplest explanation to your social lives. Many catty arguments have started in this very class room because someone thought someone else was laughing -at her-. And once this thought starts, my young wards, you proceed to invent an explanation as to why they are laughing about you. It always involves your clothes and that she is a ‘bitch’.
I want to show you that maybe, just maybe, the person was laughing at a funny joke, or something that happened to her on the way to school, or because she is a giggly girl. In other words, the simple explanation is that the laughter had nothing to do with you.
Hopefully, the razor and my brilliant lesson will cut through the crap of your own self-loathing and help you cope with high school drama better than I did.
Yours in education and laughter,
Ms. Carroll