Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sigh.
I think, quite possibly, the hardest thing about teaching isn't trying to figure out how to engage your students, or keep grammar exciting, or motivate kids to write, or get a reluctant, struggling reader to love books. I think that the hardest thing about being a teacher is when you realize just how different their reality is from what you thought it was, and they are just twelve, and their life is already harder than almost anything you have ever dealt with. I think that is the hardest part.
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Yes. Even just reading. I've always "gotten" It. The It of asking questions and interacting with the text. Nobody directly and explicitly taught me how to do It. But the students I teach now never got It (because no one ever taught them It), but I have no reference for why they get confused when they do because our brains are working in totally different ways.
ReplyDeleteYou're talking about a different thing, but that is the hardest part.
I agree with you Danielle. Finding out how complex some of their young lives are is hard. Sometimes we are the only stable adults those kids have. What a huge responsibility and honor.
ReplyDeleteI agree Deana! I have always felt that this time--this intense, bizarre time in their lives is a time that they are pulled in so many different directions. They are seen as babies, as children, as caretakers, as adults, as so many different roles--and meanwhile, their bodies are going through the most intense growth spurt of their lives, second only to the time from birth until two. Physiologically, psychologically, emotionally. Their bodies are just totally freaking out. And yet, we expect them to get to class on time, turn their homework in (in a way that we can read it), sit still, not click their pens or snap their gum or write notes, be honest, be kind, be responsible and just all around human. It's a little silly when I think about the countless peers I have that doubt could manage all those expectations. Yet--regardless, occasionally, these extraodinary young ones let us in. Trust us. Talk to us. It is, as you say, an honor.
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