It Followed Her to School One Day

“… now, if we reticulate the splines across the Z axis, we can observe exponentially harmonicated variations in… excuse me, did someone just say ‘ba-a-a-a’? Please, I must ask that there be no disruptions in class, thank you.

“As I was saying, the hypotenuse of the cross-quadrant tri-lateral equations may be reconciled into a single self-referencing logarithmic matrix… all right, I distinctly heard someone say ‘ba-a-a-a’ again! I must insist that these disruptions cease!

“And in conclusion, the positive factorials in each of these matrices may be plotted as a series of circles around a central axis, producing a sphere, or as it is also known… Yes, that’s right, a ‘ba-a-a-al’. Thank you, whoever said that.”

goat-in-class

I always felt sheepish in advanced math class, John B.

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49 thoughts on “It Followed Her to School One Day

  1. Brouhaha February 24, 2016 / 11:11 am

    Little Bo Peep has come a looong way, baby!

  2. Susan February 24, 2016 / 11:21 am

    Is that a service lamb? What’s next – Service sloths?

    • Gigi_the cat lady February 24, 2016 / 12:29 pm

      Ohhh! I want a service sloth!!

      • Amy February 24, 2016 / 12:39 pm

        me, too! I’m queuing up behind you, Gigi!

  3. Kay Fabe February 24, 2016 / 11:34 am

    No wonder I always felt sheepish in math class.

  4. Saffron February 24, 2016 / 11:37 am

    Is that why diplomas are called sheepskins?

    • debg February 24, 2016 / 11:43 am

      Unfortunately, no. Though I’ve played with parchment and vellum as a medieval historian, it always gave me the creeps.

      • Murray February 24, 2016 / 1:05 pm

        Cool! I’d love to feel what it’s like to work on but, like you, I think I’d feel a bit squeamish about it.

      • fkaWaldenPond February 24, 2016 / 1:06 pm

        Debg are you really a medieval historian? I would think that is a very fascinating career. I am into a lot of medieval history and would love to go back in time for a couple of days to England or Rome; mind you, I would want to bring antibiotics and tomatoes with me as a start. Eels though, no can’t get into eating eels and it seems just about everybody loved a good eel dish back then.

        • debg February 24, 2016 / 1:25 pm

          I am indeed, though I’ve left academia after 15 years to edit knitting magazines. Loved teaching my classes on Medieval Europe and the Roman World (along with ancient Greece, early modern Europe, and the Ancient Near East). The food would have given me the heebity jeebities, though. Roman cuisine especially was really weird.

          Murray, you can actually see on vellum and parchment where they scraped the hairs off.

          • Kar February 24, 2016 / 3:52 pm

            You don’t like ants dipped in honey? Decayed fish sauce that’s been baked in the sun? A chicken stuffed in a goose, stuffed in a pig stuffed in a cow?

            I don’t eat breakfast either so I don’t think that’s too weird.

            • debg February 24, 2016 / 5:45 pm

              It’s like a TurDuckEn!

          • Faye February 24, 2016 / 8:16 pm

            I watched a Dirty Jobs episode where Mike Row (that Mike not our NTMTOM) visited people making handmade vellum. Not pretty. Creepy.

          • Murray February 25, 2016 / 1:11 pm

            I was visiting someone in Dublin and after we viewed the Book of Kells she told us about seeing a page where the warble fly holes were decorated and there was marginalia that read (in Latin, of course) “I am so cold and tired”.

  5. AJ February 24, 2016 / 11:37 am

    This is absolutely adorable! But seriously, need to know the back story on this picture. Why is there a lamb in class? How did it get there? Where is this? Your adoring public NTMTOM has to have the details!

    • debg February 24, 2016 / 11:42 am

      What AJ said. Where is this magical land where sheepies go to school?

  6. Faye February 24, 2016 / 11:53 am

    Agricultural College?
    I want to think it’s a therapy sheep!

    • Catwhisperer February 24, 2016 / 1:21 pm

      Where do I sign up to get a therapy sheep?!

    • BB/VA February 24, 2016 / 5:49 pm

      Well…I went to a partly agricultural college (they added the vet school after I dropped out) and that room looks VERY familiar – except that the room was a chemistry lecture hall.

      I did not do well in that room. ;-(

      • Faye February 24, 2016 / 8:24 pm

        Me too!! Looks totally familiar. Ag school to try to become a Vet Tech. I could get good grades on paper but was not good with the phlebotomy class. And we were going to have to restrain horses to get certified. I bailed.

  7. Muppet2171 February 24, 2016 / 12:28 pm

    I might have paid more attention in math class with a sheep there. Granted, it would have been more attention to the wrong thing, but I would’ve paid more attention.

    • Saffron February 24, 2016 / 3:25 pm

      Yes, but if there was more than one sheep in class, especially math class, naturally you would count them and then fall asleep. zzzzz 😀

      • Muppet2171 February 24, 2016 / 6:48 pm

        Sleeping in class was not something I needed help with. 😀

  8. Gigi_the cat lady February 24, 2016 / 12:39 pm

    That made as much sense to me as when I was in school, the teacher could have been speaking Chinese and it would have made no difference to my level of understanding.

  9. D B February 24, 2016 / 1:23 pm

    Obviously someone’s Lambda Calc class….

    • Faye February 24, 2016 / 8:38 pm

      Tom had three full bags of wool…
      I hate word problems.

  10. dubravkamcvmd February 24, 2016 / 1:28 pm

    NTMTOM, you could have had a career in politics! You have a real flair for plausible gibberish.

  11. JenDeyan February 24, 2016 / 1:52 pm

    Look at that face. Actually, looking at it is easy. Looking away is hard. It’s super adorable.

  12. Tamara February 24, 2016 / 2:54 pm

    Sheeps and cats and other creatures are invading our educational system. Know thy enemy so that you may one day strategically POUNCE AND NOM HIS OR HER NOSIE OFFFFFF!

    • Saffron February 24, 2016 / 3:27 pm

      OMG this is the greatest thing I have ever seen. MANY thanks for posting!!!! 🙂

      • debg February 24, 2016 / 6:03 pm

        And it’s fabulous. Thanks so much!

      • Kristin February 25, 2016 / 12:24 pm

        Haha! My favorite quote from the article: “I only have so much time to devote to my cat’s social life.”

        • Faye February 25, 2016 / 12:52 pm

          Yup!

    • Faye February 24, 2016 / 8:33 pm

      I just Liked Bubba’s FB page. Awesome story.

      • Murray February 25, 2016 / 1:19 pm

        And this reminds me, what’s going on with Li’l Bub?

  13. margaret February 24, 2016 / 4:57 pm

    That would be so awesome if the student’s name was Mary!

    • Faye February 24, 2016 / 8:30 pm

      Ha!

  14. Julie February 24, 2016 / 10:00 pm

    Someone voted this Thumbs DOWN….why????

  15. AB February 24, 2016 / 11:42 pm

    I actually had a similar scenario back when I taught juco. I was teaching a basic algebra class, and each time I turned my back to write on the board, someone would make a loud groan, the sound a stereotypical disgusted teenager makes in a TV show. It was the first day of class, and I was trying to be cheerful and encouraging. The material was basic first-day-of-class review stuff. Finally, I’d had enough of the dramatic moans, and I turned around ready to say that I wasn’t grading on attendance, so anyone who found the material groan-worthy was welcome to go find something more exciting to do! As I opened my mouth, I heard the groaning sound again– coming from a student’s service dog, a yellow labrador who was napping under her desk.

    • bananabreadhead February 25, 2016 / 12:28 am

      Wonderful story!

    • Faye February 25, 2016 / 4:55 am

      Labradors are so not into algebra!

  16. George Michael Sherry February 25, 2016 / 3:45 am

    Well, I used Google Image Search on the photo, and found a possible candidate for the site it originally came from; it has something that LOOKS like it says Metro News in the site title, and the article has a closeup photo of a lamb above the photo we have here. I got Google to translate some of the text (from the Google summary, not the page itself, for reasons I am about to explain) and it does refer to taking a pet to class. HOWEVER, the page is in Dutch (or at least that’s what Google Translate reports) and within seconds of bringing it up, the page itself is obscured by a consent form — something about the cookie policy, I think — which is ALSO (naturally; as it should be) in Dutch, so I have no idea what I’d be agreeing to, so I can’t click it and get back to the page itself to have more of the story translated.

    So, any Dutch speakers want to look into this?

    http://tmgonlinemedia.nl/consent/consent/?return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metronieuws.nl%2Fnieuws%2Fkoffiepauze%2F2016%2F02%2Fleerling-neemt-lammetje-mee-naar-klaslokaal&clienttime=1456389606122&version=0&detect=true

      • George Michael Sherry February 26, 2016 / 3:19 am

        You’re welcome. And thanks to Murkle46 for the follow-up research. I was a longtime CO fan (like many of us here, I suspect), though I may have used a different name there. I may have even used a different name HERE; is this the first time I’ve commented in all this time? Anyway, as with most CO fans, you were my favorite writer (not to disrespect the efforts of any of the others), so as soon as you announced this site, I started reading here, too. Thanks for keeping the cuteness flag flying.

    • murkle46 February 25, 2016 / 7:31 am

      On World Animal sometimes allowed to take your dog, cat or hamster to school. But usually there are strict rules surrounding the pets. Reddit user dyakobian was surprised by a fellow student who had taken a lamb to school. The animal kept him close eye.

      “Someone has his pet to class today captured and kept staring at me,” he writes in the photo apparently someone thought that “Take your lamb to school – day. Was.

      Read also: Woman takes part in pig plane

      In a sweater-clad creature was apparently nothing to the lesson and found the student in the row behind his owner a lot more interesting. Someone on the forum wondered if perhaps someone had asked “service animal”. Like a seeing-eye dog.

      Thank you for finding this G M S.I looked for a while and the closest I got was maybe Australia?I am happy to see how many people are enjoying the photo I sent in!Thanks!

    • murkle46 February 25, 2016 / 7:36 am

      (You can click on the consent form,using right click,and select translate to english.Then it said it needed to use cookies and the big green tab was the “agree” tab.)

  17. Murray February 25, 2016 / 1:14 pm

    Don’t know about you guys, but this thread has made me so happy I could incubate a sprinkler!

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