Manipulation and Unorthodox Practice

Sometimes I feel like my best practices as an educator revolve around the art of manipulation; some may call it reverse psychology. Unfortunately students don't usually come to me with a fondness or trust for teachers OR an intrinsic motivation to learn. Most of my day is spent delivering content in an irresistible and sometimes unorthodox way. A shameful example of this was a time when I was reinforcing the rules of integers. For multiplying/dividing integers- same signs = positive. An overzealous student quickly pointed out - "it's like homosexuals; same sex partners test positive for HIV!" I was stunned by the comment, not because it was inappropriate in nature, but because the student had demonstrated a deep connection between the stem word "homo" and the application of the word across content. In that moment, I was willing to accept this clearly risqué comment as it seemed to trigger light bulbs in other students' minds as well. In that moment, the student thought they had been victorious and succeeded at throwing a curve ball at sweet, gullible Mrs. Morgan, but I knew with certainty that the victory was actually shared. (I did speak privately with this student after class)