“Teachers don’t understand.”

We were talking about whether or not schools should allow retakes on Friday as part of our work with argumentation. One of the reasons that held the conversation for some time was this notion that teachers don’t understand kids’ situations. They talked. I listened. And as I listened, I learned.

Oh, it wasn’t an entirely new idea (kids have claimed this for eternity, I suppose), but it was an important idea. Because whether it’s true or not, kids feel this way. And beyond the idea of this particular topic, it got me to thinking about how small kids’ voices really are in their own experiences. They don’t get to speak often enough. And when they do, it’s not for very long, for we have more important things to get to. And that, gives me pause. What’s more important? The content is important, but is it more important? And while I am not suggesting it’s less important, I am wondering if it’s at least not equally important. But we only have so much instructional time. Yes, we only have so much time. We only ever have so much time. But maybe there’s more to the work than getting kids to understand. Maybe it’s about our understanding, too.

Yes, we believe we already know, for we were kids once. And, yes, we can already anticipate and therefore assume what they will say (we work with kids), and so, we don’t need to devote the time. But maybe in our place of “knowing,” we could know more. Maybe we don’t know as much as we believe. Maybe there are things that we can learn from them. And maybe there is just simply something to letting them speak. Maybe there’s something to their feeling like they are being heard. Maybe there’s something to our just listening. So, maybe we need to make time to listen. Seems there may be something to that.

Happy Monday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.