Topsy Turvies in My Classroom
A letter to Herbert Kohl
Dear Mr. Kohl,
Funny that you call it a topsy-turvy. I had to come up with a similar paradigm-shift as a new teacher, and called it a “complete 180” because I felt I needed to learn from my students if I was to succeed during my second year. I chuckled to myself with recognition as I read about Julia, the student who heard you encourage the class to make mistakes but didn’t believe you. The way you tell the story, you were practicing as you preached, so in your class Julia learned to be a headstrong and opinionated student. You created a welcoming space where she felt safe to challenge you (and the state test!) when a test-day reality did not conform to her feminist values. I have been in similar situations where I spent class time paying lip-service to a principle, only to have students find all the inconsistencies in my application of it. For example, once I made an offhanded response to a (very helpful and community-minded, for the record) student who was asking for extra help before school: I would help him with his math if he would help me put some books away. My words, thrown out so carelessly because I was in a hurry, caused him to stop short. He reappraised me with his gimlet eye before informing me, “Jessica that is a low level of moral development to say that. Is almost like to do something only to get something back.”
