Yen - Yang

The fun thing about sub teaching is that each day has new possibilities, and so it was today. The yen and yang of education. Fight in the classroom yesterday, and a hundred thirty kids for whom school work is never more than an afterthought, to be avoided and ignored. Today, in a small school set up to focus on Arts and Technology the kids were interested, interesting and creative. The rowdy class was talking about the assigned project. Quiet in the rooms during reading and test taking, lively discussion and interaction when they were brainstorming for upcoming projects.

Yesterday in one of the loud classes the various conversations that were going on around the room happened to hit quieter lulls at the same time, and three or four students were stunned and uncomfortable by the relative silence. A working environment that most of us would consider to be a reasonable noise level for an independent work session in math class actually made that bunch nervous.

I don’t think they believed, and declared that they wouldn’t be able to stand it, when I told them that there were math classes in which a quiet working atmosphere was normal. I went on to say that when they began trying to make their ways in the world, it would be the quiet class members for whom they would be working. Of course we also know that some of the students with whom our kids will be competing are not in totally disciplined rooms in India and China.