The Role of Personal Judgment in the Classroom

I just returned from a wonderful vacation to Utah and Colorado, spending several days viewing incredible geological structures in Arches National Park, The Canyonlands National Park, Colorado Monument State Park, and Garden of the Gods. Although I’d seen two of these areas before, I just can’t get enough of their awesome beauty. Whether spiraling upward or diving into the cavernous landscape, these formations inspire me to great depths of appreciation of God’s artistry. (And as a side note, for those of you who see them as scientific formations from the evolving formation of Earth, I’m good with that, too.)

Another treat for me during these excursions is that I frequently see things in the rock. For example, there’s a formation in Arches that looks like the Magi, and I definitely see the two camels kissing at the Garden of the Gods. Other times, however, I simply see blobs of rock, which, on this trip, reminded me of the many clay formations I created during my elementary school days. You see, while other more talented classmates molded clay into recognizable animals, the best I could muster were snakes, worms, and, what I would deem to be very cool blobs. Unfortunately, my teachers weren’t as impressed, resulting in my less-than-stellar art grades. Yet, what many of us pay to see in our national parks do, indeed, mirror my long-ago creations. As a result, after what I saw the last few weeks, I’d like to officially call for a re-evaluation of my student artwork. Although I may not have created anything as inspirational as what took millions of years to form in Utah, I think I at least deserve a little more credit here!

Granted, there are many skills across the subject areas that fall on common agreed-upon standards. Most words are spelled correctly or not. Writing complete sentences is necessary to clear comprehension, unless there’s a stylistic reason for using fragments and run-ons. But the qualities of stylistic writing are frequently in the eye of the beholder. Many storylines rely on dramatic structure, but determining exactly where the climax of the storyline falls could be up to interpretation, not to mention the overall quality of the piece of literature, in general. I am not a Harry Potter fan, but, to me, it’s still high quality literature. The Twilight Series? Not even in the ballpark! But does that mean because I have an English teacher’s license that I have the right to put that “trash” stamp on the novel for everyone else? Is it based on my definition of effective style that I can evaluate what should appeal to my student readers and writers? Could I have received a higher art grade had my teacher looked at my clay blobs and thought, Wow! Those are really cool!

Putting my long-lived opinion of wishing we could throw grades out the window altogether, at the very least it’s not only fair but it’s necessary to put our own personal opinions on the doorsteps of our classrooms when it comes to areas of style, quality, effectiveness, and personal preference of some of the skills we teach. Instead, we need to encourage students to formulate their own preferences as they enter and continue their own reading and writing journeys. That’s not to say that we don’t share general opinions—or our own—but we do so in a way that validates the students in our classrooms as they come to terms with who they are as readers and writers. Approaching the instruction of our skill base this way may be our only opportunity to ensure that students value their language arts experiences so they will want to continue reading and writing on their own time outside the classroom. After all, isn’t that one of our ultimate goals?

Non-Negotiables

Visiting with a friend today, I learned that a local community pool has to close for a few weeks to correct a spring painting mistake—the painters forgot to mix the necessary granules into the paint, which prevents slippage. As a result—you guessed it—not only have several people fallen around the pool, but a few days ago a young boy fell and suffered a serious head injury. Now they have to drain the pool, repaint it, wait for it to dry, and fill it back up before reopening to the public, including many disappointed season pass holders.

Certainly, we all make mistakes, but my friend and I continued discussing the inexcusability of this one. After all, weren’t these professional painters? Hadn’t they painted pools before? Wasn’t there an inspection before filling the pool? Before opening the pool to the public, didn’t the life guards notice the safety issue as they walked the deck? All along the way, it seems that several of these different types of employees would have caught this problem based on their own training and knowledge that is a part of doing their jobs—their “non-negotiables,” if you will.

Although varied from one job description to another, we all have non-negotiables, and the rest of us outside each other’s jobs have to trust numerous people throughout our lives to know and carry out their non-negotiables. For example, as an English teacher, my non-negotiables include knowing and communicating in Standard English grammar, as well as understanding the basics of language, if for no other reason than if students can’t trust me to model language for them, they may not have that learning opportunity from anyone else. For the math teacher, details of language is a nice-to-know skill—just as math properties would be for me—as speaking “correct” English is not necessarily a non-negotiable to teach math effectively. (Granted, in my ideal world, everyone should possess the skills of language, but sometimes I have to get over myself in this area.)

In other career fields, a minister’s non-negotiable is to know the Bible; an accountant, the tax laws; an architect, building codes; a referee, the rules of the game; a doctor, the human anatomy; a travel agent, hotel accommodations and tourist attractions; a farmer, fertilizer; an air traffic controller, flight patterns; a restaurant worker, sanitation guidelines, and on and on. And I’m certainly hoping that the plumber who’s coming tomorrow to replace a toilet in my house knows the fine details of pipe mechanics! (There’s probably a better term for this, but I don’t really need to know it.)

I just finished reading Your Inner Fish, a fascinating book on evolution—totally outside my usual reading habits, but because I’ve developed an interest in science the last few years, I thought I’d give it a try. At the same time, one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much is because the information is a “nice-to-know” for me; no one expects me to be an expert on this subject. Another book on my summer reading list, however, is The Pun Also Rises—back to reinforcing my English teacher “non-negotiables.”

What are your non-negotiables?

Let's Just Be Honest

Like so many people—but not enough—I just don’t understand why people can’t be honest! Why is it so hard? In the words of Mark Twain, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” In essence, being honest can eliminate a lot of stress and save a lot of time.

Representative Anthony Weiner is just the latest in a long string of politicians who thought he wouldn’t be found out. Before him, just to name a few, are John Edwards, Larry Craig, and Bill Clinton, who all denied the facts only to have to admit the truth later. When will people learn that in this age of technology and scrutinizing media, they might as well admit the truth from the start, humbly apologize—assuming they’re actually sorry or they’ll be committing another lie—and let us get on with the important things in the world.

As to Representative Weiner, he probably didn’t do anything that many other people haven’t done, childish though it is, with the convenience of a camera in almost everyone’s cell phone. Stupid and disappointing? Yes. Particularly since he’s supposed to be a role model for the rest of us, but his action wasn’t unique and probably not rare. The only ones to benefit from his embarrassing act were the comedians ready to make use of every punning opportunity they could muster. (Thank you Stephen Colbert for the “Treat Meat”!)

Once again, however, I am just as disappointed in the media for trying to make it newsworthy. I truly can’t imagine CNN’s Wolf Blitzer proud of dedicating even one second of his journalistic skills to interviewing the congressman. I want to believe Blitzer’s boss forced him to hold up the Tweeted photo during the interview. After Wolf’s coverage of the first few hours of the Persian Gulf War, surely he has no expectations of winning a Walter Cronkite Award for the Weiner interview. Wolf, you really lost some journalistic dignity on this one.

But back to the point…why is it so hard to be honest? Using superlatives is dangerous, but I truly can’t think of anything I value more than honesty. Whether in my personal or professional life, I’ve learned it’s always better to fess up to my blunders—purposeful or not—and get on with the tasks at hand, and I’ll admit that there have been times in my life when crow was a staple at my dinner table. There’s enough drama in the world without extending it by deceivingly thinking the truth WON’T out. It WILL! I can’t help but think that more relationships are weakened by holding onto a lie rather than admitting the truth and asking for forgiveness. And when we find it hard to forgive someone for admitting to stupid mistakes, just think of the last one you made. For me, I wouldn’t have to think back that far.