Two things.

[conuly]

First, let me say, when it comes to musical instruments you are all collectively a veritable font of knowledge.

Secondly, today Evangeline put on a spare pair of glasses (our house has lots of those) and pushed them down on her nose and picked up a book (lots of those too) and said "I am the teacher!" and did this whole little teacher skit.

I did the same thing at her age with my first pair of glasses (and my second and third, honestly, it never lost its charm). But, you know, I've never actually seen any teacher - or anybody at all! - with a pair of reading glasses perched precariously on the end of their nose. Where do we get this idea as a society? I don't think Evangeline's ever met a teacher like that either!

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

My evil teacher mentor in the Bronx used to do that. Maybe it's a generational thing.

[dragonwolf]

Glasses tend to slip down the nose over the course of a day, especially if the earpieces are too long and the hooks don't hook right at the ear. This is especially true when doing something like reading a book, where your head is at a downward angle, letting gravity take even more hold.

From there, it's then exaggerated by cartoons and caracatures to get the whole "perched on the very tip" look.

(This is also how the nerdy "push on the nose bridge to push the glasses back up the face" action came about.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's from cartoons and childrens' books - almost every time they illustrate a teacher from back-in-the-day, she's got glasses like that.

I can tell you the truth of it though: far-sightedness. I've been very near-sighted since childhood, but now I'm getting older and thus getting increasingly far-sighted, which has corrected the near-sightedness enough that I can now read most comfortably without glasses. This is nice for reading in bed, because I no longer mash my glasses through falling asleep in them, but even with no-line bifocals, it means I'm constantly doing like Tom Sawyer's Aunt Polly, looking over and under my glasses instead of through them.

Therefore, yes; the thing about glasses perched on the end of the nose is true, because a lot of people can't see both near and far through their glasses. A teacher who needs reading glasses to read isn't going to be able to glance up from her desk and see what's going on in the back row unless she lets her glasses slip down far enough to see over them.

[rachelkachel]

I look over my glasses at people (well, just my family) to express annoyance. Thing is, I'm nearsighted, so all it does is make them blurry. But it's a habit I picked up from depictions of teachers with glasses on the ends of their noses.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I do that too, and imagine that I picked it up from similar sources. Because again, it just makes people very blurry. I guess maybe it makes it so they can see your eyes more easily.

(Also hello! I've been wondering how you are and what you're getting up to.)