I took great pains with the planning of my lessons, using illustrations from the familiar things of their own background... I created various problems within the domestic framework, and tried to encourage their participation, but it was as though there were a conspiracy of indifference, and my attempts at informality fell pitifully flat.
Gradually they moved on to the second and more annoying phase of their campaign, the "noisy" treatment. It is true to say that all of them did not actively join in this but those who did not were obviously in some sympathy with those who did. During a lesson, especially one in which it was necessary for me to read or speak to them, someone would lift the lid of a desk and then let it fall with a loud bang; the culprit would merely sit and look at me with wide innocent eyes as if it were an accident.
They knew as well as I did that there was nothing I could about it, and I bore it with as much show of aplomb as I could man- age. One or two such interruptions during a lesson were usually enough to destroy its planned continuity... So I felt angry and frustrated when they rudely interrupted that which was being done purely for their own benefit.