Fourteen

A couple of weeks ago, there was a big debate in one of my classes. It actually started as a result of reading the poem God Says Yes to Me by Kaylin Haugh, which I've mentioned in an earlier post. In the poem God tells the speaker that "you can do exactly what you want to do."

"Really?" one of my students jumped at the opportunity he saw there. "I'd never come to school." And the rest of the class period was spent with all the other students trying to convince him that he was wrong. He held his ground admirably. "Think about it," he said at one point. "What has school ever done for you? When have you ever needed something we've learned here?"

Oh, they tried to convince him of the things he would need to know in the future, but the best they could come up with was cooking or "more math". "I already know how to cook," he replied, "and anything else, I'll learn it then, if I need it."

Up to this point, I'd been silent, listening and allowing the students to work this out on their own, but now the change of class was minutes away, and I felt like I should nudge the conversation to some closure. "How awful it must be for you," I said to the student, " to come every day to a place where we ask you to do work that you don't think is valuable. I'm sorry you don't like school."

He frowned for a moment, and then he said, "Awww-- school's not that bad."

The groans of the other students started low and rose to a stunned crescendo as the class ended. They couldn't believe that the conflict was resolved just like that, and they were still talking about it on the way out the door, until the room was empty but for a single student and me. "Thank you for letting us have that debate," he said. "It was important."