I had built up a strong post-lesson pubbing tradition among my students, so those who came to the pub would get to know me (especially my perverse sense of humour) better than just as a teacher in the classroom.
Students also knew that they could come and talk to me in my office whenever they liked — a lot of them would come in early for their lesson, so that they could have a chat with me. These chats could be social, or about their studies. They were always welcomed. I’d always make time for them.
I had a perpetual store of food (fruit and nuts, mainly) in my office for snacking throughout the day. When students came to my office, they’d always get offered something to eat.
One year, a queue had started to build up outside my office on a non-registration day. This meant people were there for something other than registration, so each one might take even longer to process than straightforward registering for the course.
I saw a few familiar faces — continuing students who could always come back another time, as they knew my office door was always open to students, or even discuss the matter in the pub after the lesson. So, I handed each one a fruit, and said, “Take one and go away.” They understood my sense of humour, but the faces of those people in the queue who didn’t know me were a right picture!
(London, 1995 onwards)
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