Week 2 of Operation Everybody graduates

(I am shamelessly stealing this from a colleague, but I don't think he was the original story teller ;-P)

So, on the first day of school, the teacher stands in front of the students and says, "Good morning, class. I'd like to get one thing out of the way right now. Please stand up if you're an idiot."

Blank stares fill the room, and the students wonder if this is a lesson. They wait and wonder. After some time and awkwardness passes, a little freshman slowly rises. he stands there proudly, but patiently. The teacher looks at him with a grimace, lowering his spectacles.

"So, you admit you're an idiot?" he says.

"No," says the freshman. "I just didn't want you standing all by yourself."

How many times do you wonder what your kids 'have on you' or if they see right through you, or at least think they do? I had one of those moments early this week. We spent a day learning about feudal era England in order to prepare for the first big text, Beowulf. After I pulled a total brain fart and couldn't remember where Wales was on a map of Great Britain, IN FRONT OF MY PRINCIPAL, I finally pulled myself together to talk about the invasion of the Roman Empire. I find this stuff fascinating, and I can usually pull the audience in with my story telling techniques. And one of the little grasshoppers chimed in with, "Why do we need to know this stuff, I thought this was English class, not history class." And the little one sat back in the chair very proud, maybe for having challenged me, maybe for having broken everyone's focus. At first, I had nothing. Blank stare. Touche. The little muppet had me speechless for a split second. Then, I had it. "This is part of English history, you need to know what was going on so you can understand what you are going to read. We're building background knowledge."

"I understand what I read, it's just a story. This is stupid."

Now really, I was totally OK with the question, and even able to excuse what seemed like purposeful timing, until I heard the word "stupid." Oh no you didn't, little grasshopper.

"Sure you do!" I said. "I know you're a great student, and so is everyone else. But what you understand is on the surface, and we are going to kick it up a notch here. We want to look at what is between the lines, what isn't written."

And so began a fruitful conversation about oral tradition and why we don't know who the 'author' of Beowulf is. We talked about how the story can change as it is passed on, and how different translators might add their insight without changing the text. We talked about how feudal society might have been without social organization and the influence of Christianity. Oh, my friend joined in, and was an active participant.

My point is, we can build background knowledge all we want. We can lecture about St. Augustine and how he brought Latin learning to an otherwise widely uneducated society and give them theories and formulas and new words. But sometimes we have to help them make the connections. Sometimes, if we don't explicitly show them how the information they have already learned is relevant to the current topic, their teenage brains won't get there. Sometimes a nudge is enough to get them on board, sometimes we need to hold their hands and show them the way, and sometimes, they make their connection without our help. Those are the moments to praise them, to cherish, to celebrate the victory with them.