Marshmallow House

Students are distracting; they get off topic so easily. The problem is, the more off track they get, the more fun it usually is. And though you're getting paid to redirect them, it's hard to ignore the fun. Jessica discovered this fact the hard way when she first started her teaching career.

"Are you drawing flying toasters again?" she asks. She's caught them twice before not doing the assigned work, instead sketching appliances with wings. They'd always excuse themselves by explaining, "We're being creative." This time, however, the kids were drawing marshmallow houses. Instead of getting them to resume their work, Jessica finds herself debating the merits of a marshmallow house with the students. One student thinks it would be cool, because then if you got hungry, you could just eat the couch. Jessica counters that it's stupid to eat the couch, because you might have company come to visit. She suggests that they eat something less functional like the floor. The first student counters that the floor's not even a logical choice, to which Jessica flips out and asks, "What, so now you're going to bring 'logic' to the marshmallow house?"

Discussion then moves to the marshmallow pool. The students want to fill it with Jell-o, but Jessica is very adamant that it would contain whipped cream. Initially, the students think that's stupid because you'd just sink to the bottom and hurt yourself, until Jessica points out that the bottom is made of marshmallow, so you'd just bounce off of it. Suddenly, there's a collective "Oh yeah!" which then alerts Jessica as to just how off topic she has gotten and she runs off to help other students.