Many things will disappear one day, the best should disappear last
August 6, 2024 2:32 AM Subscribe
Man, I remember working in Japanese schools a decade ago, and Hagoromo chalk was good enough that teachers would buy it themselves out of pocket and jealously guard it. It really was something truly special. It feels like the oil pastels of blackboard chalk.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:54 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:54 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
This is just the adult version of that Mr Rogers episode where he narrates over the crayon factory footage.
I'm not complaining, mind you.
posted by AlSweigart at 6:59 AM on August 6 [3 favorites]
I'm not complaining, mind you.
posted by AlSweigart at 6:59 AM on August 6 [3 favorites]
Most schools and universities use dry erase boards these days, but if you're lucky enough to be in an old or unrenovated building, treat yourself to a box of these. They're simply the best.
posted by MengerSponge at 9:40 AM on August 6
posted by MengerSponge at 9:40 AM on August 6
My (mathematics) department has taken out all the chalkboards (over the objections of my colleagues) because the chalk dust breaks the electronics (computers and printers). But that is very nice chalk, if you have chalkboards!
posted by leahwrenn at 10:59 AM on August 6
posted by leahwrenn at 10:59 AM on August 6
Part of my general Ndiversity is some minor sensory stuff, and the absolutely worst sensitivity for me is scraping sounds and sensations. Makes it feel like my teeth are going to jump out of their sockets.
About half of our classrooms have chalkboards and half have whiteboards. I always request rooms with whiteboards, but it never fails, and some point there's a last-minute reshuffling of rooms and I get stuck in a chalkboard room for at least one of my courses. White chalk, well, I try to grin and bear it. But the texture of cheap colored chalk is ... like fingernails on a chalkboard, is what it's like. And I find it really hard to work without any color-coding at all, so I used to go through all kinds of drama about how I was proving my selflessness and devotion to my students every time I had to use non-white chalk, which I'm sure they enjoyed, but which was absolutely the only way I could make myself pick up the vile stuff and... Ugh, I can't even describe it without getting upset.
White Hagoromo chalk is like buttah, and the colored chalk is very manageable.
One of the econ profs favors a classroom that is considered undesirable by most of our colleagues, so it doesn't get a lot of use. It happens to work pretty well for the way I teach, though. Therein I discovered his vast, secret but unguarded stash of white Hagoromo. I filched quite a few sticks before I got my act together and bought some (at which point I replaced at least some of what I had stolen from his stash).
A graduating student gave me a package of Hagoromo Luminous Color as a farewell present. I don't play favorites, but that student is my favorite.
posted by BrashTech at 4:17 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
About half of our classrooms have chalkboards and half have whiteboards. I always request rooms with whiteboards, but it never fails, and some point there's a last-minute reshuffling of rooms and I get stuck in a chalkboard room for at least one of my courses. White chalk, well, I try to grin and bear it. But the texture of cheap colored chalk is ... like fingernails on a chalkboard, is what it's like. And I find it really hard to work without any color-coding at all, so I used to go through all kinds of drama about how I was proving my selflessness and devotion to my students every time I had to use non-white chalk, which I'm sure they enjoyed, but which was absolutely the only way I could make myself pick up the vile stuff and... Ugh, I can't even describe it without getting upset.
White Hagoromo chalk is like buttah, and the colored chalk is very manageable.
One of the econ profs favors a classroom that is considered undesirable by most of our colleagues, so it doesn't get a lot of use. It happens to work pretty well for the way I teach, though. Therein I discovered his vast, secret but unguarded stash of white Hagoromo. I filched quite a few sticks before I got my act together and bought some (at which point I replaced at least some of what I had stolen from his stash).
A graduating student gave me a package of Hagoromo Luminous Color as a farewell present. I don't play favorites, but that student is my favorite.
posted by BrashTech at 4:17 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
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This was the first of their videos that I watched: Why 11 Of The World's Priciest Items Are So Expensive (jump scare alert: the first 10 are delightful, but the 11th is hyper-realistic baby dolls, and they're super creepy). Here's the whole So Expensive playlist.
posted by confluency at 3:24 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]