As I have mentioned a few times, I come from a family of liberals and live near DC, many of my friends are liberals and love this kind of stuff. I maintain some ties with them due to years of history with them, though I am rapidly moving in another direction.
I read it with a sense of horror because of the very subtle indoctrination embedded within — well, I’ll say I used to find it subtle but not anymore. Now it screams out at me.
It’s cloaked in “teacher love” and “mommy love” and believe me, I know all about that — many teachers and moms do deeply love their children and want the best for them. But all of the other stuff in here, I find extremely disturbing: the strange (Common Core?) math, the trustingly handing over of one’s children to the state, the sneaky profiling of children “for their own safety and good of all, especially those being bullied” and the “pass this wonderful, heartwarming story on to everyone you know!”
A few weeks ago, I went into Chase’s class for tutoring.
I’d emailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, “Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home is math – but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.” She emailed right back and said, “No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime.” And I said, “No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.” And that’s how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth grade classroom staring at rows of shapes that Chase’s teacher kept referring to as “numbers.”
I stood a little shakily at the chalkboard while Chase’s teacher sat behind me, perched on her desk, using a soothing voice to try to help me understand the “new way we teach long division.” Luckily for me, I didn’t have to unlearn much because I never really understood the “old way we taught long division.” It took me a solid hour to complete one problem, but l could tell that Chase’s teacher liked me anyway. She used to be a NASA scientist (true story) so obviously we have a whole lot in common.
Afterwards, we sat for a few minutes and talked about teaching children and what a sacred trust and responsibility it is. We agreed that subjects like math and reading are the least important things that are learned in a classroom. We talked about shaping little hearts to become contributors to a larger community – and we discussed our mutual dream that those communities might be made up of individuals who are Kind and Brave above all.
And then she told me this.
Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who doesn’t even know who to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down- right away- who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.
As a teacher, parent, and lover of all children – I think that this is the most brilliant Love Ninja strategy I have ever encountered. It’s like taking an X-ray of a classroom to see beneath the surface of things and into the hearts of students. It is like mining for gold – the gold being those little ones who need a little help – who need adults to step in and TEACH them how to make friends, how to ask others to play, how to join a group, or how to share their gifts with others. And it’s a bully deterrent because every teacher knows that bullying usually happens outside of her eyeshot – and that often kids being bullied are too intimidated to share. But as she said – the truth comes out on those safe, private, little sheets of paper.
As Chase’s teacher explained this simple, ingenious idea – I stared at her with my mouth hanging open. “How long have you been using this system?” I said.
Ever since Columbine, she said. Every single Friday afternoon since Columbine.
Good Lord.
This brilliant woman watched Columbine knowing that ALL VIOLENCE BEGINS WITH DISCONNECTION. All outward violence begins as inner loneliness. She watched that tragedy KNOWING that children who aren’t being noticed will eventually resort to being noticed by any means necessary.
And so she decided to start fighting violence early and often, and with the world within her reach. What Chase’s teacher is doing when she sits in her empty classroom studying those lists written with shaky 11 year old hands – is SAVING LIVES. I am convinced of it. She is saving lives.
And what this former NASA scientist and mathematician has learned while using this system is something she really already knew: that everything – even love, even belonging – has a pattern to it. And she finds those patterns through those lists – she breaks the codes of disconnection. And then she gets lonely kids the help they need. It’s math to her. It’s MATH.
All is love- even math. Amazing.
Chase’s teacher retires this year – after decades of saving lives. What a way to spend a life: looking for patterns of love and loneliness. Stepping in, every single day- and altering the trajectory of our world.
TEACH ON, WARRIORS. You are the first responders, the front line, the disconnection detectives, and the best and ONLY hope we’ve got for a better world. What you do in those classrooms when no one is watching- it’s our best hope.
Teachers- you’ve got a million parents behind you whispering together: “We don’t care about the damn standardized tests. We only care that you teach our children to be Brave and Kind. And we thank you. We thank you for saving lives.”
Love – All of Us
– See more at: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/#sthash.OzgJWZBz.dpuf
It sounds nice and pretty on the surface, but why does this teacher assume that she has a right to meddle in the personal lives of her students, and why does she think she knows what’s best for them emotionally?
And this policy is based on the following assumption, which doesn’t necessarily apply to all kids:
“…….ALL VIOLENCE BEGINS WITH DISCONNECTION. All outward violence begins as inner loneliness.”
That’s simply not true, but she applies this ultra-liberal ideology to a classroom full of kids as if it were gospel. I think she should concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic, and leave the social work to parents.
I’m happy, content, and peaceful when I’m alone, and I certainly wouldn’t want any teacher prying her nose into my personal life.
We have the right to be left alone if we want, and no teacher should apply these blanket assumptions to an entire classroom full of kids, because she simply doesn’t have time in the day to get to know them all well enough to make these decisions regarding their emotional state.
Well stated! I couldn’t agree more. This one sentence may sum up our position in the world when it comes to education – “We agreed that subjects like math and reading are the least important things that are learned in a classroom”.
Fortunately, my little girl’s school is “old school”. If that changes, she’ll be “schooled” at home on the three R’s. We already take care of the rest.
Stay Alert, Stay Alive
that has been my experience, too, JR. Too many times when my kids were in public school, the teacher/staff guessed WRONG about what was going on with them.
And some teachers/staff are so loving towards their students that in their good and loving judgement, for the protection of the kid, they call CPS on the parents.
Lest ya’ll think I disrespect teachers, I come from a family of teachers and understand where they are coming from and the hard work they do.
But this type of thing in this article is outrageous nonsense to me. Who do any of them think they are, that they can profile children like this? And, once they do, what types of “targeted interventions” will they come up with? This kind of “love” is candy-coated poison.
I learned to love math posting here,need to solve a problem every time I post!
This is pure, unadulterated collectivist BS!!!! These “people” think they know what is best for everyone else and they dam sure plan on forcing it down your throat. People that buy into this nonsense are, at best, easily manipulated sheeple.
Go to youtube and search: “the deliberate dumbing down of america”
Schoolers
Don’t want profiling of your kids in school? Then homeschool them, for goodness sakes! I know some states…you know, the liberal ones…make it hard for non-teacher-certified parents to do so, but it is not impossible, even in New York. And if both parents work, then do it in the evening. That’s what I did when I was teaching in El Paso for a year (though my husband did do one or two subjects wit them, but not reading, language arts, spelling, or math).
“……. I find extremely disturbing: the strange (Common Core?) math,…….”
They need to start calling a spade a spade………..
Communist Core.