Reports from the field.
E D I T O R ' S N O T E : Discreet, attentive to prevailing notions of privacy, and wary of the sensitive nature of the ego, Novice Teacher chooses the persona of anonymity. He became a teacher at a public high school in August, 2004. The persona appears often in the commentary of Mrs. Bowles.
 January 1, 2005
In search of a definition (elusive)....
Student.
Opportunity and bane.
Challenge, reward, and mystery.
Invigorating, bedeviling, exasperating, and energizing.
Focused, angry, bemused, benumbed, and inspired.
Inquisitive, dreamy, asleep, impulsive, withdrawn, and engaged.
Quiet, rowdy, rude, respectful, focused, studious, and confused.
Laughter, tears, chatter, yawns, frowns, and whispers.
Stylish, vulgar, saucy, shy, and outrageous.
Recognition, disinterest, enthusiasm and acknowledgment.
Self-assured, self-absorbed, self-destructive.
Fascinating and elusive.
Student.
Loud and frothy riders of the sea.
 After a long run of school days, bell after bell, I sometimes stand in the hallway and marvel at the incessant ebb and flow of students across the threshold of the classroom. From first bell at five past eight to last bell at fifteen past three, the students are ceaseless in their coming and going.
A clock-driven schedule sets a relentless pace when linked to an unbroken string of daily lessons and activities in the procession of five-day weeks between holidays. At times the pace engulfs everyone in a surge of creative improvising and reactionary contingency. Stamina and dogged persistence forge uneasy partnerships with scholarship, preparation, and attentive involvement. The lines between success and survival crisscross in the march toward an elusive sense of fulfillment.
Like riders on waves of a sea, my students arrive, loud and frothy, to lap at the shore of a lesson without end. In this metaphor, Room Seven becomes the safe harbor, a way station of security for students on a forced voyage of self-actualization.
If a safe harbor, then what dangers lurk beyond the sheltering space? I have an answer, but will save it for another lesson.
High school for my students is as much about learning who to be as it is about learning how to read, write, reason, and calculate.
Each new day I search for better ways to direct them toward a method, a routine or a symbol that might be useful to their search for a rightful place in the world. Imparting knowledge and honing skills are essential to responsible teaching. So is transcendence of the corporate and the mundane. Embedded in the fact, technique, and synthesis I impart are clues to helping my students discover an identify that fits.
|
