Barnett - From a self-confessed teacher's pet
Nice email I chose to share:
From: The teacher in [city withheld] 'burbs...
As a behavioral specialist working with severely emotionally/behaviorally disordered kids, one of my classes is a 'pull-out' (non-mainstreamed) social science course where the curriculum delves into what I term as the four major catalysts that drive/have driven history: a) economics; b) politics (political philosophy); c) cultural development (sociology); and and our current semester project... d) religion.
Generally speaking, these kids hate school, they hate teachers, and hate the planet in general. They find no intrinsic value in education and would rather be "4:20'd" the better part of their day if they could.
The other day I was presenting a discussion on violence in world religions. For some odd reason, the kids perked up and started asking questions about the general threads of violence in Judaism, Christianity, and of course, Islam. When the question was asked: "Why does it seem that Islam is so violent and the other two aren't?", I responded with what I thought would be a mini-lesson on the Core and the Non-integrated Gap...phrased in HS vernacular of the traditional "HAVES", and "WANNA HAVES" v. the "HAVE NOTS", and the "PISSED OFF BECAUSE THEY DON"T HAVE"/DON'T WANTS".
It carried on for nearly 40', with brains actually thinking, with comments that didn't reflect how much school sucks or how BS my class was. I got questions like: "You mean if the countries that get along because they have too much to lose [the Core], work together to shrink the pissed off rogue countries and the ones that don't have squat, that terrorism and wars might eventually go away?", and "So is this why we're fighting in Iraq?", and "Will Afghanistan and Pakistan really buy into this stuff?".
They actually GOT IT!!!! They understood. The irony is that a group of screwed up, disconnected kids who hate rule sets in their own lives, clearly understood an advanced lesson on global geopolitics, and there are people you face everyday who remain complete skeptics and naysayers.
The joy is...indirectly, you helped me reach some really tough kids...and for at least one day in their lives, they chose to learn!!!
Thanks,
[name withheld]
The sad thing is--of course--impact like this does nothing for . . . THE FLEET! |
