Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 01, 2019

We’re supposed to like Caulfield, right?

A teacher is not for one student’s amusement. I do like Caulfield, but this is unnecessary disruption of class for the he rest. Intelligent questions in class is good. A bit of horseplay is also acceptable. But constant disruption has to be punished.

Caulfield has yet to get the message. In this game, the one who pitches the assignment also gets to call the ball. It’s called managing one’s class, so Frazz’s reply is a little short too.

Why the hatred??? Every class has a goofball/walnut head; who ends up at MIT and finds proof of unprovable theorems, solves equations thought to be unsolvable and finds solutions that are not only feasible, they actually work! Caulfield is actually several classes ahead of his age in brain -power, he just needs his maturity to catch up with him. And, he reads! And not just the drivvel that passes for reading material for his age. He reads literature far beyond his age.

She probably does understand baseball. Caulfield doesn’t understand that metaphors don’t always fit.

She may or may not understand baseball. She clearly understands Caulfield.

Understanding baseball has evolved — it used to be the most complicated thing was the infield fly rule, but now with Sabermetrics we’ve of WHIP, WAR, OPS, BABIP, launch angle, exit velocity, spin rate, etc. etc. etc.

It’s a strange game because the goal is for everyone to win.

Ok….chill…..it’s just a toon

It might just be a toon but it provides for interesting ‘conversation’ between members and it doesn’t seem to generate much anger. One of the few that are able to do that and one of the main reasons I enjoy saving it for my last strip of the day. Maybe my 25 years in middle and secondary teaching has something to do with that.

The problem I have with Caulfield (and the strip in general, I suppose) is the constantly shifting goalposts. There are times his “precociousness” isn’t disruptive or offensive, and the party line from his ardent supporters is “He’s a genius amongst ‘ordinary’ kids, he’s bored and unchallenged, and he should be at a school where his gifts are talented and nurtured.” Then there are the times his shenanigans cross a definite line into mean-spiritedness, and the excuse becomes “It’s just a comic strip, obviously not real.”

The reality of the situation (as real as can be applied to a comic strip, I suppose) is that it’s hard to not take away that at its heart the strip is massively self-righteous. There is a definite element of us vs them where the us is the intellectual elites who obsess over mental and physical fitness played against the derpa-derp doofuses where the Caulfields and Frazzes (Frazzi?) of the world always come out on top. Personally I think its a horrible message “I think I’m better than you, therefore I’ll treat you as I see fit, and I shall never face any repercussions for my actions – and if I do, I’ll brush them off as unworthy of my attention.”

PostsFrazz12 hrs ·

http://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2019/05/01Caulfield’s question is a valid one. Sooner or later, this could become contentious, and you have to know whose shoes to kick dirt on.

I think she does understand baseball… and she’s telling him that the game is fixed.