Guaranteed to bring up a smile…
Somehow this story always reminds me of Sessue Hayakawa in The Bridge on the River Kwai, admonishing his prisoners, “Be happy in your work.”
What kind of kooks are coming out of teachers’ colleges? “Smile or else”? They command the students to be cheerful? One can hardly help asking, “About what? About having to be in this loony bin?”
I don’t think “school officials” ever explained what this policy was supposed to achieve.
Probably just slipped their minds.
And then the policy became “Cover your nose and mouth with masks so no one can see you smiling.”