Making sense of Justin's beard

I have a theory about Justin Trudeau and his beard. Now, I know that there may be thousands of articles out there touting similar theories but I can’t say I’ve read one. So, good on you if you’re reading this one. I appreciate it.

Now, I’m going to give some background on my theory before I divulge it in the hopes that it will make it more believable. My experience with a public audience such as Mr. Trudeau has had to endure was largely limited. I acted in some plays. I did some stand-up comedy. And, I taught school.

In none of those situations, was I being what you call myself, partly because in my initial experiences as a teacher, I got weird reactions from my audience. In a social curriculum course at university, we were asked to teach a lesson in front of my classmates. Mine was on the weather. Amongst my audience was the professor and a grad student acting as his teaching assistant. She laughed during my entire presentation. And here's the thing, I wasn't trying to be funny.

Then, there's the first time I taught in front of a real classroom. Instead of the teacher, the principal of the school had come to observe me. Then, as few days later, I had the faculty consultant in the back of the room watching me teach. These guys told me they'd seen lots of teachers and, point of fact, I wasn't one.

I developed a persona. I ignored the rule about never smiling before Christmas and started my classes as a generally pleasant guy who remembered all the kids’ names within the first couple of classes. Discipline was generally handled with humour however I liked to draw a hard line. If a student or students didn't like me, that was okay. It wasn't personal and generally, it worked.

The thing is, I didn’t care. They could like me or not because that wasn’t really me up there. I mean it was but it wasn’t. it was a persona. That’s not to say there wasn’t an occasion that I didn’t take a dislike to certain students but, in all my 28 years of teaching, there were only two or three. 

Comedians have personas. There’s the persona of Jon Stewart played by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show.” When Tucker Carlson invited him on his show, “Crossfire,” he was outraged because it wasn’t “The Daily Show” Jon Stewart that showed up, it was the real Jon Stewart.  

John Doyle of the “Globe and Mail” describes the persona Ricky Gervais plays when hosting the “Golden Globe Awards” as “the guy-at-home, the one who rolls his eyes when well-off actors pronounce on issues the guy-at-home thinks they don’t know much about.” That’s the host who’s been hired by the Hollywood Foreign Press hired. Not, the Ricky Gervais of the original television show, “The Office” of his current show, "Afterlife." 

 In no way am I comparing myself to Mr. Stewart or Mr. Gervais. I’m simply using them as people who were playing themselves while playing a persona. People do that. I figure most people do it to a greater or lesser extent when they go into work. Some, just do it more than others.

So, when a class was getting out of hand, I would simply flip my persona. I would go from the easy-going fella to the guy who meant business. Jokes weren’t used for the purpose of discipline and little interaction took place between me and the students except for that which related to learning.

For some teachers, this is there modus operandi. If the kids are scared, teaching is a lot less work. Fortunately, the emergence of this persona wasn’t necessary very often. Otherwise, I would have hated my job.

Now, getting back to my theory about Justin’s beard. Is it possible that the Justin we see taking selfies with all and sundry isn’t the real Justin but a persona? Could it be possible that he doesn’t really enjoy it? That it’s actually work? I remember one class saying that I shouldn’t get paid for what I do because it just seemed like fun. I mean it was okay and this was a nice class but fun? It was still a job.

That’s how I see it for Justin. It was probably fun getting all that attention but unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think that’s why he’s in it. It may be a bit of a calling but it’s also a job. So, when the international heart throb is starting to get stale at home, or is already stale, maybe it’s time to change things up. And, what better signal of that change than a beard.

I would have loved to be able to grow a beard as a teacher. I can grow whiskers but it’s not going to be a beard. But, if I could grow a beard and the environment of a classroom needed changing, out it would come. Who knows? Justin Trudeau was a classroom teacher. He probably experienced the need to bring out a different guy depending on the circumstances. Would a classroom by that different from the general public and, more specifically, the media? If you're doing a perona, it may not matter.

Jason Kenney called Justin an intellectual lightweight. I’m not sure that makes Jason a heavy but it may reflect some of the sentiment out there. Like the nice Mr. Ramsey had to go away for certain classes and maybe it’s the same for the fun-loving prime minister. And, maybe that’s okay. Maybe a prime minister should keep the fun-loving side on the down low. Personally, I don’t have a problem with Justin having fun-loving side because I understand that people have different sides and they take on different personas. I just wish I had been able to grow a beard to announce that was happening.