RICK MacLEAN: Maybe soccer, er football, is exciting. Sort of.

The noise met me midway down the hallway. That’s not normal. I’m usually the one making the noise, on purpose.

It’s a toss-up what’s tougher for students.

A class that starts at nine or ten in the morning, after a night of whatever it is teenagers and early twenty-somethings do the night before, can be a challenge for them. And, therefore, for me.

A class that starts after lunch, when the daily version of the turkey hangover just wants to put them to sleep, is just a variation on the same theme.

So I’ve developed a bag of tricks to tilt the odds in my favour when I’m about to lecture. The room must be chilly, make that cold for a student from a place like Nigeria, Pakistan or the Caribbean. About 19C.

“Why is it so cold in here?” a student once asked. I smiled.

“Bring a sweater.” From then on, she did. I didn’t warn her about the coming winter. Let that be a surprise.

Classroom playlist

Then there’s the noise. Forcing students to raise their voices just a little bit to talk creates a little burst of adrenaline, and that’s better than coffee.

Jimi Hendrix works for me. His version of the Bob Dylan song All Along the Watchtower has been the first song on my classroom playlist forever. It’s wonderful, it’s loud – the way I play it – and it’s a mental signal to me that it’s showtime.

One day late this term I started into my prep routine for an afternoon class with another tune, reasonably peppy, but definitely not Jimi.

“What’s that?” a student at the back of the room demanded, her eyes squinting in a pretty good imitation of Clint Eastwood in the movie Unforgiven. I got the message and clicked back on Jimi.

World Cup viewing

So, the noise coming from the classroom on a recent morning was a head scratcher as I made my way down the hall. Then I turned right, into the room, and saw it. A tablet, an iPad-looking thing of some sort, surrounded by students all alternately laughing, shouting and waving their hands.

Soccer. Except it’s not soccer for them. It’s football.

That’s only fair, since for much of the world it’s football. And that makes sense. You must kick the ball with your feet to play. No hands allowed. Unlike ‘football,’ which involves a ball you either grab with your hands and run, or you grab with your hands and throw.

“Come on!” one student shouted as a ball shot wide of the goal.

“They HAVE to score,” called out another, this one wearing a Brazilian team shirt.

Ten years ago, even five years ago, this would never have happened. And no, it’s not because I’d have objected to it in my lecture hall before class then, and I’ve somehow mellowed over time. I’ll deny that accusation if ever accused of it.

Ten years ago, even five years ago, this would never have happened.

Beautiful game

No. It never would have happened because P.E.I. was a different place. When I began teaching at Holland College in 2001 the school, city and province were very – very – white, for want of a better term.

It was hardly a shock. I came from a small town in northern New Brunswick with the same sort of demographic.

“Well, what do YOU call someone with dark skin,” a less than tolerant person once demanded of my publisher from that time.

“We usually call them Doctor,” he replied, not missing a beat.

Great line. And true. About the only hint of a multicultural community where I came from was the traditional one, a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant.

So P.E.I. was familiar ground for me in the early days of this century. Then, slowly at first, and rapidly once it began, the Island has become a wonderfully vibrant, multicultural place, with people moving here from around the world.

Now, when I look around the classroom, it’s not unusual for a student from Ukraine to offers news of what’s happening in that war-torn country. Another points out the deaths of thousands from flooding in Pakistan, and how that’s routinely ignored by the media on this side of the world.

And soccer? Sorry, football. Turns out a game that ends 2-1 CAN be exciting. And it is a beautiful game. It’s not hockey, or even basketball, but I think I might cheer for Argentina in the World Cup Final against France. It’ll drive my student from Brazil crazy.

Rick MacLean is an instructor in the journalism program at Holland College in Charlottetown.