I was sitting at my desk this morning in "my" classroom preparing for the day. There was a meeting going on of the 7th grade teachers in the room. They were planning a field trip to a ropes course, a kind of final bonding experience for the group. They started talking about logistics, getting chaperones and permission slips and buses and the like. And then they started talking about all of the kids that they didn't want to "deal with" on the trip. They then began making a list of all the children who shouldn't be allowed to go. As I sit here trying to prepare meaningful exercises for the very children these adults are thinking about excluding, I am immediately struck by the smug superiority of these adults. And then I catch myself feeling smugly superior to these adults sitting in judgement of these children. And then I started feeling pretty hopeless about the whole prospect of education, if this is how adults talk about children when the children aren't around.
A few words, overheard. If any of you ever hear me talking about children this way, please tell me to retire.
"I don't usually look at my girls in terms of behavior, but I probably should."
"So and so is just so obnoxious."
"So and so is a problem, but I really think she's just incapable."
"Mostly I just want those guys excluded who have made their career ruining classes."
"So and so is just a little pain in the butt."
"We should look at the kids who have just occupied space and keep them from going on the field trip."
"I think we should just fail them all. Make them repeat the class next year."
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