Bucky Buckerman

The other day I was showing my Lad Lake students a PowerPoint on animal emotions and I started out talking about humane emotions and facial expressions. I showed the Dr. Paul Ekman photos depicting universal facial expressins for different emotons.

As I started to move on to talk about animal emotions one of the boys raised his hand and with a big smile asked; "Can we call the one on the bottom in the middle 'Bucky Buckerman'?"

I attempted to use his inappropriate attempt at humor to instill some empathy. "That's not very nice to make fun of his appearance," I said. "He can't help how he looks."

"Yes he can," the boy replied, "he can get braces."

"Maybe he can't afford braces, or maybe there's another reason he can't get them," I said.

At that point one of the other boys asked when these photos were taken, and I said I thought maybe the late 60s or early 70s. "Oh, no. You're right," he said. "Back then they couldn't have afforded it."

I'm not sure if they got the message I was trying to send, but I was amused.