My pantz, zey are on fire

Lately I feel like I am walking around with a miniscule version of Bill Ayers sitting on one shoulder and a little version of Margret Buchmann perched atop the other.  My very own tiny angel and demon, each whispering in my ear. 

As I think of what type of teacher I choose to be and about the issues that lay ahead and how I will deal with them, they speak to me.  Bill shouts things like "weeeeeee!" and "share the love!” while Margret is quick to counter "uh, uh, uh...remember - professionalism".  They travel along with me and provide running commentary on the issues as I begin to "try to save the world", which by the way, is already an exhausting process for me, only after 5 weeks.  No wonder people are still "Waiting for Superman" - he's too tired and beat down from discussing the issues to show up.

MB usually ends up playing the role of the heavy because BA is just too much of a free spirit.  She seems accepting of her "role" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  They are really just two sides of the whole, sharing elements of each other.  One is professional via Creativity; the other is creative through Professionalism, sort of Yin and Yang.  I sought their guidance tonight on the way home, again pouring over our recent discussions in my head as my car found its way, somehow, through the dark.

A thought has occurred to me:  By teaching in a manner that emphasizes equality, community, true democracy, love, compassion and empathy; are we failing to prepare our kids for the current world we live in?  Put less eloquently; are we blatantly lying to them?

It seems to me we are trying to teach our kids about the world around them, the ”real world", using idealized techniques that aren't used in common practice on the "outside".  Example:  when my kids want to learn about the issues in our current political system (or social system, or racial system, or gender system) in these United States, I will be using methods based on fairness, equality and community to help my kids learn about corruption, competition and divisiveness.

Obviously we must teach this way because we choose to "see the world for what it can be, rather than what it is", paraphrasing Bill from my right shoulder, and Margret tells me from her opposite perch "that it is in fact in the best interest of the child and therefore based in professionalism", yet I cannot help but feeling like we may be setting them up for a fall.  Be it years down the road, or simply next year in a less progressively taught classroom.

I don't want to betray the trust of my students.  I will choose to teach in this child-centered way we discuss because it is the right thing to do, yet the world works very hard to make a liar out of me.  I feel like it will be difficult to be wholly honest with them without depressing them.  There has to be some ways to do this.  Also, is it too much of a burden for young children to bear to inform them that they are the flag bearers of change and this is why our classroom focuses on ecology, advocacy and democracy?  Those two little gargoyles resting by my ears have gone suddenly silent.  I hope they don't stay that way for too long.

On being an alien

For those of you who don't already know, I am a stay@home dad.  My job during the day is to raise an increasingly precocious two and a half year old little boy.  I am also trying to become an elementary school teacher, a profession commonly associated with females. 

No, nothing is wrong with me.  No, I will not turn in my "man card".  In fact, I think the world would be a far better place if more men were confident enough in themselves to follow their hearts into the k-8 teaching field.  I know you're out there.  Embrace your fear.  Join us in the revolution. *dons Che Guevara beret*

Oh, and there exists nothing more manly on this earth than a good father.

We had a lively discussion tonight on gender.  I could have prattled on all evening.  I love the topic.  Mostly because as I mentioned above, I personally turn several of society's gender norms on their head, and have fun doing it.  I get to have the unique perspective of both the male and the nurturer (and no, I don't have to become a seahorse).  One of the main focal points tonight was for us as educators to take care in preforming the needed self-reflection to avoid bringing our own gender perspectives to bear when viewing our kids.  It is critical that we understand how we feel about and fit into society's gender roles.  But the question was raised as to how we can best do this.  I have a couple of ideas.

I took a Multicultural Communications class earlier this year.  The professor was fond of two sayings:  "Context, context, CONTEXT!" and "Be and alien."  The first reminds us to turn our lens around to that of the people we are involved with, to understand why they are saying what they are saying.  Especially with kids, our contextual, baggage-laden lens may not give us an accurate view of the situation.  Harmless play and normal developmental stages become much more sinister in our adult eyes.

"Being an alien" means to view things as if you have no experience with them, as if you have just arrived here on the planet.  It helps to remove the potential to view different cultures, genders, abilities, etc. from the deficient standpoint that society dictates we should.  I find this especially handy when working with children of various backgrounds, skill levels and physical abilities.  It is very helpful to just let me see the kids for who they are.

These two little reminders/ tricks have served me well.  If while you are volunteering or when we are student teaching you happen to get "stuck", try them out.  I hope they help.

Dinobots! UNITE!!!

This post all relates back to our conversation and in-class journaling from Monday 4/11.  The question was about how we want to approach the subject of culture in our classrooms.  My initial response was that I would want the kids in my class to embrace whatever cultural background they come from, or whichever one they have chosen to associate with.  Yup, so perfectly simple, all nice and tidy.

On the way home that night, I began to ponder the complexities of that answer and the problems it encountered.*  What does this mean for those kids who don't have a strong cultural involvement at home?  What about those kids who are from multiple generation, U.S. born families that originated from an individualistic culture to begin with?  Not valuing culture certainly marginalizes those who celebrate their backgrounds, but does placing too much emphasis on the subject devalue those kids without strong ties to cultural roots?  Is there a culture for them?

It brings up the subject of an "American culture".  Oh, our country’s ideology loves to mention America as the "great melting pot", and that "American culture" is the most amazing collection of cultures in the world.  But, what happens when something melts?  It loses all shape and continuity.  What once held form now is an unintelligible mass.  How about when you melt two separate, unique items?  They meld into one indistinct form.  The base of the Statue of liberty contains a portion of the sonnet The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus: "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", so that we may boil you down into a form that makes you less distinguished and more like us, completely homogenized.  That is what the "melting pot" means to me.  Suffice it to say, this will not be a part of my classroom.

Since the existing one will not suffice, then how do I create an overlying culture for those kids who do not have a powerful tie to one?  Is it possible to create a "New American Culture"?  What is the starting point for doing so?  Can there be an overarching culture with sub-cultures without stripping those individual parts of their power?

Here is what I have so far, I call it my Dinobots Theory of Culture:  Back in the day of the original Transformers, there was a sub-division of the Autobots known as the Dinobots.  For the purpose of my theory we will have to strip away the hierarchies of Transformer first, Autobot second and Dinobot third and just focus on the latter as it's own independent domain.  Why Dinobots?  Well, I am trying to develop my ideas in terms of things I can explain to kids; using parts of their lives to represent the concepts and teaching from their experiences.  Elementary school kids love both robots and dinosaurs (there is the potential that this will require some reworking for the girls) so I felt this might be a good way to try to express a somewhat abstract idea to them.

The premise is simple.  There were five Dinobots, each on their own a valued member of the team with unique strengths and characteristics.  However, when pressed they could unite into a super robot.  Some members becoming legs, some becoming arms, some becoming parts of head and torso.  All equally important parts of the greater whole, yet still distinct and independent.  Separate but united.

I think this would work on two levels; first that those who do not identify with a particular culture can feel included in something.  It not only gives them a sociocultural group to be part of, but since this "umbrella culture" contains many different pieces, they can feel a part of each smaller unit that makes up the whole.  I hope this sense of belonging will propel them to learn more of these new cultures they are a now connected to.  Second, I think that if there existed a positive connotation to an "American culture", then those with a strong cultural background would be much more inclined to share their heritage, beliefs and values with others knowing they would be appreciated rather than facing attempts to suppress them or meld them into our current system.  It would also give them access to the majority group without feeling like they are sacrificing their culture to do so.

Maybe this is all too deep of a concept to try to get kids to latch on to.  I firmly believe that social change should start early and I am hoping that relating it to them in a contextual way they can understand may help.  I also think that some of our kids (especially the white boys and girls) have never had to think much about how their backgrounds fit into the greater scheme of things and therefore are less inclined to know about other cultures since they don't even identify with one of their own.  Hopefully making them a part of a greater cultural whole, they will want to find out more about the individual pieces.

*By the way, does anyone else think that perhaps it isn't the safest thing to fill our heads full of deep-thinking questions and then proceed to drive out into the dark of night on the highways and byways of the greater Seattle area? 

What's wrong with finger-painting?

Since when did it become the pariah of the art world?  Blaming finger-painting for lack of adequate test scores is like blaming teachers for our badly designed, poorly funded educational system.  Art can be used to teach anything (I will prove this if need be), and finger-paints rock.

But before I delve too deep into that, I wanted to update you all on how things are going with Bill and me.  We met for a second time this week (chapter 2).  He was a complete gentleman and when we talked it was like magic.  Our thoughts were so in sync that often we would finish one another’s sentences.  He would say “in order to really know your kids you need to get to know their” and I would chime in “parents”.  It made us both blush (he has the cutest dimples!).  Then he would tell me about how he would find any way he could think of to meet with those parents, inside or outside of school, whatever it took.  His sense of conviction was quite stirring.  William also opened himself up to me and shared about how he believes that our schools’ system of “deficit based education” needs to stop and that we need to start teaching to our kids strengths.  I had never heard this from him before and I must admit, I couldn’t agree more. *fawn*

*sigh* I think he could be the “one”.

This desire to truly know our kids so we can teach to their strengths brings me back to finger-painting.  My wife is a mental health counselor.  One of her colleagues and a good friend of ours specializes in art therapy counseling.  When we go out to eat and I doodle on the papered tabletops, this friend loves to analyze them, stating that “art is the best purveyor of one’s inner self”.  It truly is a window into the soul. 

I personally think the best way to get to know someone is to push them out of their comfort zone and see how they react.  Nothing does this like a bunch of thick, sticky, smelly, goopy paint on your hands.  The only way to get it off is to pour your heart out onto that poster paper.

You really want to get to know your children?  Those, “living, breathing, squirming, growing, moving, messy, idiosyncratic children”?  Make them finger-paint.

I think Bill would want it that way.

Hair raising worries

So, what's with the video?  It came to be when Joey Mazzarino, a head writer and puppeteer at Sesame Street adopted an little Ethiopian girl.  He and his wife are both white.  As they watched her grow, they noticed a change in her when she started to play with dolls, Barbies in particular.  She would look at the dolls and really want the long, blond hair.  She soon began saying negative things about herself and her hair.

I chose it for a couple of reasons.  First, because the story behind it gives us a great example of the problem we will be facing as educators of multicultural classrooms: that everyday of their lives our kids are unknowingly subjected to white ideology in this country.  On a subconscious level white becomes the norm and non-white kids begin to dislike themselves for who and what they are, rather than celebrating in themselves as they should.  This certainly drags itself into the classroom with the kids and affects how they learn.

Secondly, I felt this week’s reading on race didn’t really give many concrete examples on how to combat the specific issues we will surely face as white teachers educating in an increasingly culturally diverse system.  “Understanding the cultures of your students” and “continued self-evaluation” are fabulous ideas and I wholly embrace them, but they are all thought and little action.  The advice given all seemed so....ethereal and very Jedi (understand yourself and the cultures of your students, you must).  I guess I just wanted to know some actual ideas on how to grapple with an area that is of concern to me; how do I deal with blatant issues of racism in the classroom.  The readings left me somehow wanting.  So I posted the video, which is the best example of countering harmful ideology and celebrating one's differences that I have seen to date.  I think it is an excellent example of the type of teaching tools we should be using.

If anyone gained more insight from the articles, I would love to know.  Or if you know of some more hard examples of things we can do, I would love to hear of them, read them, see them, or get the links to them.

UPDATE:  Next time I will wait until our class discussion on a topic before posting.  Last night we had a wonderfully presented, lively conversation that covered most of my concerns and included a handy reference sheet to find more information and tips.  Race is a topic I am very passionate about.  Looking forward to continuing the discussion.

I think I have a man-crush on Bill Ayers

It's true, I definitely do.  You know when you first meet someone and you are talking with them and it's like they must have been inside your head at some point because the things they are saying are literally your "things"?  I know right?  Weird.  Well, that's what it's like for me and Bill.

Yes, I am aware that it is very early in our budding relationship and what I am feeling may simply be an infatuation and in the end I could wind up getting hurt, but as with most endeavors of the heart, I think it is a risk worth taking.  Maybe you would understand better if I explained just why I have such feelings for Mr. Ayers.

I have been constructing my thoughts on who I want to be as an educator and how I want to teach for many years.  I have come up with 3 major themes:  1)  Love your kids, 2)  Know yourself and 3)  Know your kids.  My struggle has been turning these "foundations" into practical theories that I could use in the teaching profession.  The ideas were there, I just lacked the words and experience to voice them.  Imagine my surprise when William Ayers seemingly reached into my soul, plucked out my deeply rooted tenets and then proceeded to flesh them out for me.  "Here" he said with a roguish smile, "Let me give you a hand with that."  I must admit, it was a little awkward, as all first conversations with someone you like are, but I couldn't help but feeling as if, "he gets me."  Not to mention he gives eloquent voice to concepts for which I have been unable to find the right words.  Does anyone else feel like this?  Does William "speak" to anyone else in the same way?  (It's okay if he does, were aren't an exclusive item....yet....don't you ruin this for me!)

One of his Teaching Myths struck me as particularly profound and since we never got to it in our class discussion, I thought I would touch briefly on it here.  Myth 10: A good teacher knows what is going on in the classroom.  At first it makes no sense to me.  One would think a good teacher is omniscient, or at least trying to be.  Then I realized his whole point was about seeing from another's perspective, the "using a different lens" theory we were discussing last Monday.  But not simply another lens from your kit as in re-examining your perspective, but literally looking at it from another's point of view.  Your lesson means one thing to you, but what is it from your kids perspective?  One lesson becomes thirty lessons.  It can fail or succeed based on the successful meshing of those views.  As Bill so deliciously puts it: "Classrooms are yeasty places, where an entire group comes together and creates a distinctive and dynamic culture; sometimes things bubble and rise; sometimes they are punched down or killed off."  How on earth I can learn to create an engaging, active classroom in which I can pull together so many different perspectives seems a bewildering task.  So I ask this for us all to think about:  With all these vastly different organic compounds in this "yeast", how can we as teachers make sure this Bread rises?

My son will think I am so hip (if only for a moment).

He'll be all like: "OMG dad! You've been a blogger since I was 2?" Then he'll ask me a bunch of technical questions I won't understand and then inquire about my blogs monetization and the ruse will falter.  For now though, he's little, and I can do no wrong. But enough personal blogging, on with the classwork...