Comments on: Finally

By: i

Fri, 12 May 2006 22:16:01 +0000

it is always rewarding when students thank you. it is a great feeling! and it’s true, it gives you a lot of energy. good job!

By: Clifford

Clifford — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:43:18 +0000

Well, I refer you to the “poorly paid teachers” part of the extract!
-cvj

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:39:41 +0000

Surprising… Sounds like you would rather have a student who polishes cyber-apples than a student who polishes real-apples.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:15:31 +0000

Looking at what the site that jeff pointed us to says:

Kids who really want good grades should consider giving their teachers Apple computers or iPods. If that’s not possible, however, fruit remains a tasty option. Apples have a long history of greasing the wheels of education. Take notes — here’s how the classroom corruption began…

According to aboutapple.com, the juicy fruit is a traditional present for teachers in the United States, Denmark, and Sweden. Some think the practice originated as a simple gift of food for poorly paid teachers.

You know…I like this tradition! A few spare ipods, PowerBooks, etc? Yeah!

-cvj

By: Blake Stacey

Blake Stacey — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:05:07 +0000

According to one of Dave Feldman’s Imponderables books (I can’t remember which one!) the tradition of students giving apples to teachers dates back to the nineteenth century. Schoolteachers in the little farm towns were often paid in kind: sacks of potatoes, apples and so forth.

The Imponderables series is really good for answering these sort of questions. The problem comes when you have to hunt through a shelf of these books to find the one answer you know is there. . . .

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Fri, 12 May 2006 13:37:25 +0000

I believe your student with the “apple offerings” is playing the role of an “Apple-Polisher.” This British expression was first recorded in the late 1920’s. An apple-polisher is a student who seeks favors by toadying or who engages in sycophancy.

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:52:09 +0000

Checking and grading the work of the students can be a lot of work too.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 11 May 2006 20:25:23 +0000

Jeff:- Sorry. Had to dash off to a dinner arrangement. Only got to smell the tasty fumes of the barbecue and take a few pictures and say hello to some. Catch you at some other event?

-cvj

By: Jeff Nuttall

Jeff Nuttall — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:35:13 +0000

I saw you at the barbecue and was going to say hello, but I apparently waited too long; by the time there was a break in the conversation at the table I was sitting at and I decided to take the opportunity to talk to you, you’d already left. Oh well.

As far as the apple question, apparently someone’s asked that before…and not gotten a really definitive answer. The practice certainly predates the Bing Crosby song Robert mentions, though–the word “apple-polisher” came from the practice and goes back as far as the 1920s, so the practice itself has been around at least that long; the Bing Crosby song dates from 1939.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:24:45 +0000

Is it coming from here:

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/bing-crosby-an-apple-for-the-teacher-lyrics.html