merry very merry

Every other Monday I teach the class that I had the year before last as 7year olds. They were a lovely class then, and they haven't changed much. Actually the extent to which they haven't changed constantly surprises me. Alice still bounces up and down like a manic Tigger, Chris is still pushing in the corridors, Hayley still wears her coat buttoned up to the chin and Cassie still gets her pre-PE headache as regular as clockwork. I pointed this out to them the other week and Steve piped up 'I've changed - I'm gooder!' which just goes to show that he hasn't changed, either.

This afternoon I had to teach them music. A quick scan of the plan showed that we had to go over a round that I taught them a couple of weeks ago. It goes like this:

'Hey Ho, nobody at home,
Meat nor drink nor money have I none
But I will be merry, very merry'

Despite it's being something which is unlikely to show up on MTV any time soon the class actually really enjoy singing it. Last time we were singing it in three parts, pretty successfully. We spent a lot of time working on the attack and diction. I like teaching singing. This afternoon I decided that before we went onto the complicated and inharmonious matter of trying to pick out the tune on sets of chime bars with most of the necessary notes missing I'd get them to sing it to me again.

'Can you remember it?' I asked them. Cue much enthusiastic nodding. 'Go on then: let's hear you' I said. I might have la-d them a note. Or I might have forgotten. What I got was one of the finest pieces of South London football terrace Englishese that I have heard for quite a while (Since anyone sang "e's got ve 'ole wewld in 'is 'ans", in fact.)

'Ayy, Oh...nahbodee at 'ome,
Meet nor Drink nor Munnee-av-I-nuN
Bu' I wiwl be meree-veree-me-eh-rreee!'

Bless. (As they say around here.)

I leant back against the classroom wall and laughed. They laughed back at me, which has always been one of their more endearing characteristics. Then we got all the chime bars out, which would account for the thundering headache this evening.