Meet teacher Edna K.

Edna Krabapple was once a very optimistic woman who genuinely wanted to help people in need. Years of 4th-grade elementary school teaching wore away her optimism and turned her into a chain-smoking caricature of a jaded U.S. public school teacher. She may have had a heavy drinking problem and passed away sometime after 2013.

Mrs. Krabapple's teaching style was indifferent at best. She was cynical, short-tempered, and uncaring, having completely lost sight of what being a teacher is all about. She responded to questions and concerns of her students with sarcasm and dismissal, struggled to manage her classroom, and resorted to punishment as a means of control.

Pork is not a verb

One student in particular vexed Mrs. Krabapple: Bart. Trying to control him, she made him write sentences repeatedly on the chalkboard as punishment. These included "I will not waste chalk", "Pork is not a verb", and "Spitwads are not free speech". Of course, Bart hated the punishment. Still, he wrote: "We'll really miss you, Mrs. K" on the chalkboard when she retired.

Bart Simpson may not really have missed Mrs. Krabapple, but Simpsons fans did. The miss-you chalkboard line paid tribute to voice actress Marcia Wallace, whose passing in 2013 also spelled the end of Edna Krabapple. The chalkboard gag at the opening of many episodes of The Simpsons stayed.?

Not a time of waste

It's next to impossible to pick an ultimate chalkboard gag, but one of my favourites is, of course: "Grammar is not a time of waste" (episode 218). It's only a shameful waste of time if grammar hinders instead of helps. But grammar that actually helps is not. Showing students the basic pattern that sets English apart from other languages is neither a time of waste nor a waste of time - it's a necessity.

Hi, I'm Leon, and I help English language teachers discover how a One Rule approach to grammar empowers them and their students. Grammar should HELP, not hinder, so less is more...

One Rule, to rule them all