A Dozen Opportunities

"What are those doughnuts for?" a student asked me today during class. He had spotted a see-through grocery bag containing a dozen Krispy Kremes behind my desk.

"They're for Writing Club," I told him.

"What's that?" he wanted to know.

And so I gave him a brief overview of the group. "Um, it's a club where kids who like to write come and write and share their writing."

"Can anyone come?" he asked.

I was pretty sure it was the doughnuts talking, since this particular student is a rather reluctant writer, but I told him that anyone was welcome, and secretly, in my writer's heart of hearts, I hoped he would come and that it would make a difference.

"I'm coming!" he said.

"Then I will see you there!" I answered, and upon returning to the lesson, promptly forgot the entire conversation.

Flash forward to 2:30 when, to my surprise, that guy and his equally non-writing buddy actually showed up for our meeting. I was glad, but the regular attendees looked upon these new recruits with doubt. They were classmates, but they were from very different social groups, and while you can't choose the kids in your class, the regulars liked writing club partially because it was a self-selected group of people with a like interest.

"You have to write, you know," one of the old timers informed the new boys.

They shrugged.

"They're just here for the snack," the first kid said, shaking his head in dismay.

Fortunately, there were notebooks and pens and yes, doughnuts, to distract and unify everyone. Our plan was to go outside and do some writing, and that is what we did. We found a pleasant spot, wrote for five minutes, and then moved to another location. There was plenty of chatter and play along the way, and everyone got some writing done.

At the end of the hour, as we headed back into the building, I found myself walking beside Mr. Skeptical. "That was fun," he said. "Those guys can be annoying in class, but they were all right today. I'm glad they came."

A Little Too Far Outside the Box?

My students are in the first stages of writing book reviews, and so I had them prepare some interview questions for each other about the books they were considering reviewing. The beauty of this assignment is that the other student need not have read the book; in fact it's better if he or she hasn't, because those questions help the reviewer figure out what the audience needs to know. The interviews also give the reviewer insight into who may or may not like the book. Plus it's a good way to get kids talking and thinking about books and writing.

Anyhow, my advice when they are writing the questions is for them to be as creative as possible. They will hear a brief summary of the book to begin with, so I encourage them to compose questions that will lead to a lively discussion.

I like it when my students follow the directions, and it pleases me when they are surprising, but I was a little shocked when I heard this question:

Which character would you be most likely to torture for information, how would you do it, and what would you want to know?

Fortunately? I know the student and how he thinks; the guy is just itching for adults to tell him he can't do something, so then he gets to debate the injustice of our authority rather than do the assignment. I don't usually pick that battle with him, but after a little prompting he amended his question to include this disclaimer:

In other words, who is your least favorite character and what would you say if you met them?

Moving Mountains

Our Tolerance Club took a group of 28 kids to the Martin Luther King Memorial this morning. I had been by the site from the Tidal Basin side, but not inside, as we had Isabel with us, and dogs are not allowed. This time, we entered from the Independence Avenue side, and I knew from the research I had done to prepare our group that the thirty-foot stones that flank the entrance are called The Mountain of Despair. Once inside, you see the huge center piece that has been removed to create the opening, and from it the sculpture of Dr. King emerges. This piece is called The Stone of Hope.

Both are a reference to a line in the I Have a Dream speech, but the symbolic power of those stones standing for what everyone wishing for equal civil rights faced, the mountain of despair, and what they were able to achieve through their hope and perseverance was very moving to me.

And it was not lost on our students, either. When, at the end of the trip,  we gathered to talk about our thoughts and observations, all of them were able to express their admiration and appreciation for those who had moved mountains to allow them to have the opportunities they do.

What Is Up With That?

Picture this:

A teacher is leading a perfectly respectable class discussion. Most, if not all, students seem to be listening and involved-- in fact, several hands are waving, signaling a willingness, if not a downright enthusiasm to participate. The teacher scans the group, wanting to be sure to include everyone, especially those kids who do not always seem engaged. With a smile and a nod, the teacher calls on just such a student, leaning forward in encouragement, eagerly waiting to hear what the usually reticent scholar has to contribute.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

Kids Today

It was a beautiful day here with blue skies and temps pushing 80 and above, so of course we rolled down the windows and opened the sun roof when we went out to run errands. A little while later, with our mission accomplished and a fresh breeze blowing through the car, we turned up the music and headed home.

As we drove into our complex, we passed a neighbor leaned over to inflate his bike tire. At the sound of our raucous arrival, he straightened, put his hands on his hips, and gave us a disapproving look. His eyes widened a bit; I guess he didn't expect a couple of forty-something ladies in a station wagon to be creating such a disturbance-- especially since he couldn't have been more than 30 himself.

Signs of the Season

I saw my first summer commercial of the year a little while ago, and frankly, two guys sweating on the stoop drinking sweet tea never looked better. It can't be long now.

Hero and Villains

The Tolerance Club showed the movie Afghan Star today at school. Made in 2008, this remarkable documentary recounts the experience of four contestants on the Afghan TV version of American Idol, and it is very informative and revealing about life in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban regime.

Most interesting to me was the heightened awareness of and concern about the contestants' ethnicity and gender. Having read The Kite Runner, I was fascinated to see both a Pashtun and a Hazara man featured. The main drama however involved the women, for as controversial as singing in public was to this nation emerging from strict sharia law, allowing women to perform was even more divisive.

Each woman approached the storm of moral ambiguity differently. One tried to be as respectful as possible, honoring tradition as closely as she could, and the other was outspoken about her "open-mindedness," pushing the boundaries of propriety in her performances.

To add perspective, both women dressed quite modestly, and both covered their heads, and so the subtlety of their differences was mostly lost on a predominately western audience such as ours. When the one removed her head scarf and danced on stage for her exit number, though, there were many in the group that clapped.

There was at least one who did not. A sixth grade girl, who is Muslim and wears a head-covering herself, left the movie shortly after that scene. "What she did was really bad," she told her friend on the way out. "She showed her hair."