Month: June 2022

We humans are very complex. We like to think that we have done everything to provide safety and security for our families, friends and neighbors, but invariably we learn of some freakish incident that seemed to bypass all of the fail safe provisions we have made. As a teacher for over four decades I learned to expect the unexpected. At the beginning of each school year as I prepared to meet and greet my new students I developed plans A through Z to deal with the many different scenarios that might occur. Even after thinking I had seen it all, there would invariably be an incident that confounded me. I learned that the best way of dealing with unforeseen disasters was to learn how to be flexible and have a willingness to change course in midstream as needed. 

I have little doubt that the vast majority of us care greatly about our children. We may have different ideas and philosophies about what is best for them, but the things that we do to love and nurture them are mostly chosen with good will. The same is true of educators. They hold differing beliefs but more often than not feel passionate about being a positive influence in the lives of the children who become their second families for nine to ten months of each school year. No educator that I have ever encountered, no matter how inept or even unsuited for the profession he/she might have been, ever wanted to harm the young people waiting to learn from them. 

When horrific things happen to our kids, we all grieve and wonder either aloud or quietly what we might have done to prevent tragedy. It often becomes a futile discussion of “what ifs” and even accusations instead of a proper determination to find reasonable solutions for insuring that such things are more unlikely to ever happen again. We know from history that even our greatest efforts may be flawed, but the innate rule of protection is to try our best and adjust we when find that our decisions were not leading us where we needed to go. That takes cooperative efforts that transcend ideologies, a willingness to step out of our comfort zones and rationally examine facts, a technique that is almost always imperfect unless it begins with the admission that we are indeed conducting a kind of ongoing research project. 

There has been discussion of making schools safer by examining entry ways and the level of easy access that they may provide to intruders. I myself have suggested that this is a proper area for discussion but I do not think that it can be the only solution offered. That being said I have seen different configurations in schools that would be an improvement, but in almost every case would still possibly by hampered by human errors. 

I worked in a school that was surrounded by a high metal fence. A guard determined who got inside the main gate. Sadly that guard was often rather lenient in granting access which was the first problem with the system. The next flaw was that the gate did not surround the entire perimeter of the property, so it was conceivable that someone wanting to come onto the grounds might find a way through the brush and bramble. Another problem was that there had to be multiple entrances and exits to each building because of city legal codes which required us to get the children out as quickly as possible in the event of a fire or even a bomb. Each of the doors locked automatically, but in a discussion of what to do in case of a shooter on campus by students demonstrated how to bypass the locking mechanism with a bit of jiggling. I was stunned by their revelation and felt a bit less safe since my classroom was right next to that door and the lock on my classroom door was defective. While the maintenance crew worked diligently to solve the problem, nothing ever worked one hundred percent of the time, so I was haunted by the idea that someone might one day come crashing into my classroom. My students assured me that we could form a barricade with all of the desks and furniture. I always wondered if we would have that much time. 

I worked in another school that had a man trap at the front entrance that assumed that a shooter would enter from that access point. The other many doors on the sides and back of the building locked automatically and as far as I knew could not be manipulated by jiggles or other means. What those safety measures did not preclude was the possibility of a student innocently letting someone inside who did not belong there. I know that parents and other visitors sometimes came to the back doors and knocked until polite pupils who happened to be in the hallway let them inside and directed them to the rooms that they wanted to visit. Not even active shooter training seemed to impress on our kids that they had to be cautious of everyone. Again I imagined someone storming inside despite efforts to keep them out.

I am not suggesting that schools should not be retrofitted with safety features or that teachers and students should not receive safety training, but I know all too well that human error has a way of creeping into even the best laid plans. What really has to happen to insure that our schools are safe is adopting a combination of many different measures, most especially including making guns much harder to purchase for everyone and restricting ownership of certain types of guns to heavily licensed and trained professionals. The gun industry has made a fortune by frightening us and attempting to make us believe that more guns are the key to protecting us. It’s time we looked at the data and realized that the arsenal of weapons owned by private citizens have only heightened the likelihood that mass shootings and violent crimes will continue to escalate. I wonder when we will finally agree that we have had enough and use our common sense and love of each other to actually make a difference. 

I have a brother who is three years younger than I am. He has always been a curious soul who as a toddler got into trouble exploring ant beds and told people that he was going to be a mathematician when he grew up. He was generally easy going and uninterested in the dynamics of sibling rivalries. He operated with a rational way of thinking almost from the moment he was born, rarely exhibiting highly emotional outbursts, so it was a bit disconcerting to our mother when teachers at his school worried that he might be depressed. Of course by then my father would have been dead for a couple of years, so Mama felt certain that if he had been truly sad he would have shown signs of his distress earlier. Nonetheless she agreed to a meeting with one of the teachers and the principal of the school to determine if my brother was in need of counseling.

The evidence that concerned the group turned out to be a series of coloring projects that my brother had completed by quickly scribbling over the images with a black crayon. When the educators showed my mother the sub par art works she was at a loss to explain why her son had chosen to color all of them in shades of black. She suggested that it might be useful to call my brother to the meeting to ask him what his intentions had been. 

A few minutes later my unsuspecting brother arrived with an innocent but wondering look on his face. The teacher laid out the bleak looking papers and gently asked him why he had chosen to scribble over the images with a black crayon. As though he suddenly understood why he was there, he smiled brightly and said, “Because I don’t like to color, so I get it over with as fast as I can.” Not quite satisfied with that response the teacher pushed for more information. “Why do you always use a black crayon?” she inquired. Again my brother spoke with confidence, “Why not? I use whatever color color happens to be around.” 

The confused teacher gently pushed my brother for more information and asked him if he was feeling sad. He thought for a moment and said that he only felt unhappy when he was forced to color. Not to be outdone by a little boy, the woman then wanted to know what kind of things made him happy. His answer was swift, “I like doing math and science and looking at my book about going to the moon.” he beamed with a genuine grin stretching across his face.

My mother was hardly able to stifle the laugh that was threatening to escape from her mouth. Instead she stayed calm while the teacher instructed my brother to go back to the gym where he had been enjoying a P.E. class. She admitted that she was rather surprised to hear that he did not like art time but got a kick out math. She explained that most of the students would do art all day if given the chance, but they usually groaned when she told them it was time for arithmetic. My mother, noticing that the teacher was stammering, quickly thanked her for caring enough about my brother’s well-being to make sure that he was doing alright and then excused herself so that she could rush to her car and chuckle until her sides hurt. That story became a staple in the compendium of our family yore.

My brother went on to graduate number one in his high school class, earn two degrees from Rice University and work as a contractor at NASA ultimately designing the navigational system for the International Space Station. He is also a lifelong optimist who has led a very happy and contented life. I suppose that his coloring fiascos were little more than commentary on the reality that coloring between the lines was not creative or challenging enough for him. 

There’s been talk lately from non-educators that teachers should just stick to facts and right or wrong answers rather than including socio-emotional activities like encouraging student to help each other or finding out how children feel when completing different activities. To eliminate what some call “touchy feely” aspects of learning would miss the point of creating an environment that meets the needs of each individual student. My brother’s teacher learned how to devise projects for him that were more aligned to his interests like creating a diagram of a spaceship or writing about a formula for creating different colors. Additionally, she became assured that he was not suffering from depression resulting from the death of our father. She enlivened his learning experience and opened new pathways for him by discovering what animated him. 

As a mathematics teacher I found students every single year who either needed more challenging work to prevent boredom or who were terrified of even the most simple mathematical processes. It was important for me to know who was who and what each of their needs and interests were. I learned to craft lessons that appealed to different personalities and kept the level of excitement and enjoyment of learning much higher than if I had not taken the time to get to know my students and to understand their hopes and dreams and even fears. 

We each view the world through lenses of our own creation. Some see black and white and just the facts. Others imagine a spectrum of hues rivaling a rainbow. If we teachers don’t bother to learn these things our classrooms become dreary and even frightening. Acknowledging the role that our emotions play in the learning process is crucial to helping each student to be genuinely engaged in the sometimes difficult processes. It’s never just about the facts or the right answers. We have to understand the colors of learning for the process to begin.