I plan to respond to the excellent comments and questions I’ve received later. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday.
For now, though, I’d like to bask in today. Don’t get me wrong: 5th period was still, well, BLEH. And we probably lost out on an awesome rental house we really wanted (by 15 MEASLY MINUTES!).
Those setbacks pale in comparison, however, to the fact that it was a damn good day.
For the second day in a row, work was good! A few days ago, I wrote to a former professor:
Part of the reason the students are behaving like they are is because I’m allowing them to. I might not be able to fight their home lives or the area’s culture (and disdain for education), nor can I really fight their teenage-attitude-angst-entitlement junk…but I can control what happens inside of my classroom.
So these last 9 weeks will be different.
And the last two days have been. As I’ve told the students (warning: corny teacher speech forthcoming):
I am doing things MY way for these last 9 weeks. That means that we are going to work hard, but we’re going to have some fun while we work hard. We’re going to learn a lot and do some cool things. If you want to be a part of that, great. I want you to be! So hop on my train and let’s go. If not, then there’s the door. (this is the time for a dramatic hand gesture: slowly point and look toward the door.) Please leave and report to student services. Stare at the wall down there until we find you somewhere else to go. It’s your decision; but all I’m asking for is that you try, you have a good attitude, that you do the things I ask you to do, and that you’re ready to work.”
Then I put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. It took three discipline referrals and a good bit of redirection and re-training, but we had a good time yesterday and today. You would not imagine how much freshmen enjoy being able to insult each other and their teacher using Shakespeare’s words (I have a .doc if any teacher buddies want it). We had a lot of fun doing that. Maggot pie, pignut, and fat-livered have been pretty popular so far. And, yes, I played along and they were able to insult me, so long as I could return the favor. We had some really great laughs and many students took the sheets with them so that they could insult other friends later, which I thought was a small victory in a weird way.
They also loved talking about the ten statements on the anticipation guide for Romeo & Juliet. We ended up having some really good discussions in each of the classes and I think many of them are hooked and excited about reading R&J.
And today the counselor came to talk about schedules, grades, and college – which is usually code for “time to send a bajillion emails, write lesson plans, and work on that power point for tomorrow.” Today, though, I listened to what she had to say, largely because I’m new to the education system down here and needed the information myself!
In two classes, some students and I ended up having good conversations about college. They thought it was crazy that my freshman Chemistry class had 400 people in it, which led to us all discussing the pros and cons of community colleges, smaller 4-year colleges, and universities. (It’s really difficult, by the way, to utter the words: “The University of Florida is a really good school.”) They were thinking about their educations, grades, lives, etc. It was good stuff.
And then…two moments occurred after school today that really helped to soothe, and possibly even mend my soul a little. I had a lengthy discussion in the hallway with a brilliant child from one of the honors classes. This is the same child who I urged to read Emerson and Whitman – even let her take my copies of their works home with her. And she’s read(ing) them. In fact, two Whitman poems showed up in her poetry anthology last quarter. She’s got that rebel/individual streak, so I knew she’d like ole Walt. Plus, the rebels/individuals are always among my favorites.
We covered a variety of topics that one might not expect a high school freshman to be interested in, much less know anything about, but she does: abnormal psychology, serial killers, paranoid schizophrenia (turns out we each have a history of it in our families). She wants to be an author, and she is quite a good writer, so we talked about whether or not college was necessary. I threw out the fact that many of our great writers – Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway, Twain – never went to college. Her retort? “We can’t base what we do off of them. They had experiences and opportunities that we may not, so we can’t really look at them as examples.”
I love it when that happens.
Another gem: “Have you ever read any Kafka?” You know you’re not dealing with a typical freshman when s/he asks you if you’ve read Kafka. She wasn’t just giving it lip service, either. The Barnes and Noble Kafka collection was apparently quite affordable, so she’s currently working her way through “The Metamorphosis” and has “head that ‘The Hunger Artist’ is pretty good, too.” Yes….yes it is. So she plans to come talk about those when she’s finished them.
Before she left (turns out that instead of waiting outside for her ride, she decided to pop in on a couple of her teachers to chat), we talked more about Faulkner. She was interested in The Sound and the Fury, but I convinced her to tackle As I Lay Dying first. She’s borrowing one of my copies when she finishes Kafka.
Then, as I’m walking out to the car with a really awesome colleague and friend, I see a student and her parent. The student says, “Mr. Turpin!”. She’s obviously proud of the fact that I get to see her drive away, and she should be, so she’s wanting to get my attention. Her mother then approaches. We introduce ourselves and her mother begins our conversation with, “So, you’re the Mr. Turpin that M is always talking about? It’s so good to meet you.” It was a lovely and warm conversation. M is a hard-working and bright student, and her mother was incredibly generous, kind, and funny throughout our conversation.
That’s why we do this. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve resolved my issues with this profession or that I’ll hang in for another 30 years. Our discussions are far from over and I’ll get to them in due time…but it feels great to have intelligent conversations with fantastic students. To know that there are serious students of literature and philosophy and thought out there who are hungry for mentors and direction. It’s awesome when parents recognize what we do and express their appreciation for the impact we’re having on their kid’s lives. And when we’re able to express our appreciation to those parents for raising such awesome, smart, and hard-working young people.
The past two days were good.
Even better than all of that, though, is that we went to the pool for the second day in a row. There’s not much that soothes the soul like helping teach the 4-year old how to swim and seeing how much he loves playing in the water. It is a little scary that he’s completely fearless, but that’s also great in a way because that lack of fear pushes him to do some cool things. We just have to watch him very carefully. Very carefully. (I blame his mother for that fearlessness, by the way.)
I rubbed his back and watched him as he dozed off to sleep this evening. That was incredible, and I am overcome with emotion and gratitude that I had the opportunity to doze off myself on his floor beside him. And I’m incredibly grateful that I’m about to go hug my incredible wife good night again.
I am truly blessed. And I consider each of you a blessing, as well. Good night. Happy tomorrow.
mightaswellruminate 