What you should know

I took a job as a middle school English and History teacher at the Charles Finney School. Each week I'm responsible to plan an implement the next piece in each of 57 sixth, seventh and eighth grader's educational experience. English. History. This is a major undertaking.

When you think about what you learned in those three years of schooling, what do you remember?

I remember Ms. Roper's multi-cultural emphasis to every eighth grade writing assignment. I remember that she introduced us to the Holocaust - and that the movie Schindler's List was in theaters at the time. My parents agreed to take my friend Megan and I to see it, although I'm not sure it wasn't mostly over our heads at the time. Either way, my understanding of what man is capable of doing got blown open that year.

My memories of middle school are all dotted with emotional connections...the day I wore my brother's black Dr. Marten combat boots to school, even though my feet were too small for them. (I'm fairly certain I didn't have permission to do this.) Mr. Studer's introduction to Russian History via Animal Farm, and my final project which involved a four part choral arrangement of some lyrics from the book. Mr. Cuddy's Greek Mythology unit, and staying up until 2am the day my project was due, both my parents helping me glue pictures from magazines into place to illustrate where Greek influence is built into our society. The whole thing is marked with certain moments where I really internalized a concept, owned it in some way.

What does it take to facilitate that? How can I foster those moments for my students? Perhaps the things I connected with in my classes were the things my teacher talked most passionately about. Maybe I listened better, made stronger links with the things I knew they were excited about.

I remember the poetry I was writing during that time. It was right around there were I started realizing that it wasn't just for fun, but that poetry was a perfectly acceptable way to communicate almost anything. I wrote poetry in response to books for Ms. Roper, poetry to illustrate the parts of satire for Mr. Studer. Poetry to speak seriously to a topic, and poetry to make light of something. But not every child learns the same way, obviously. For some, writing a poem makes more sense than anything else. For others, the thought is mortifying. What can I do to encourage them to find their own way of expressing and interacting with the material? I would accept almost any form, as long as I knew the connection had been made.

The challenge I face is to encourage these students to unpack what God has put inside of them - not to grow them up inside a pre-determined mold of "success." It's like putting on someone else's shoes, and expecting them to feel exactly right. Like the day I wore my brother's boots, there have been many times where I realized what I had been walking around in were not quite my size, not quite the right shape. They were perfectly broken in, smooth and flexible and supportive - but for someone else's feet. I never want to present my students with a one-size-fits-all approach to the processing of information.

Tricky. It's going to take a crazy amount of sensitivity to convince these 57 to come with me on this thing. They are only just learning to trust me when I say I want to know what they think about things. I get the feeling they've come to expect the bad fit - learned to put bandaids on their blisters, an extra pair of socks to take up the space. Well, here's the new deal: wear your own shoes. Isn't that the point of being you, anyway? Don't you think God had something specific in mind - the same way he gave us each our own fingerprint? Specific. Intentional. Precious. Best to start unpacking, because you're going to be you for a while.