Critical Thinking in a New Room, Better Diet

The new High School building was finally ready and the sixth grade was invited to move in on Tuesday (Thursday and Friday are weekend here). The new class structure includes six student work teams (Tigers, Crazy Boys - after the Wright Brothers, Angel Kitty Power, Why (because), the Af Backups and the Jungle Boys). Each team has a large toshak in front of their seats. (Asians enjoy sitting on the floor much more than westerners and toshaks are the traditional cushions that accommodate floor sitting). The huge concrete beam just off center in the room was transformed into a paper tree. Each team owns a wire branch, to which a green paper leaf (with the student and book name written upon it) gets stapled every time they turn in a mini book report. Leaves are sprouting everywhere; kids are taking books to lunch. It's fall on the outside and spring on the inside of the new room. There are no windows on the south side of the building, which will become a problem since we are a Northern Hemisphere classroom with cold winters. The kids know all about the ecliptic line, the building engineers apparently do not. On one side wall each student (and I) has an area to display writing. On the opposite wall, the class made a 15 foot long representation of the earth's crust sitting on top of the mantle, and the five things that have been observed to happen when the plates on the crust move.
Oh, yeah, the science materials came in and the kids were given the chance pick which unit we started on, since they had been tortured so about the earth being in the middle of the solar system. We have just felt the severe earthquake centered in Pakistan (many of the children were raised there during the Taliban years and so have friends and family in peril as winter approaches) and interest is high for the section on plate tectonics. So now, they have to put up with the book dating things one way and the teacher dating things a different way. There is general agreement about what the evidence, to date, is, but disagreement on how to interpret the evidence (did the dirty shoes mean the man ran on the mountains or that he used to leave his shoes out overnight?). The way critical thought has been bound up in the science curriculum was accidental this year. Next year I plan on doing this on purpose. Following the curriculum in reading, we're on a story about a couple of bicycle repairmen who, a century ago, decided to disregard everything that was "known" and published about aerodynamics (they had studied it, but couldn't make a flyer based on it); they used their own wind tunnel to discover how air really flows in order to make a flying machine (you have heard of the Wright Brothers?).
Just got back to Dari speaking and reading when sickness came upon me. (Well, I drank some of the local tap water on purpose to get my immune system used to it.) Didn't miss any work time, but stopped reading Dari in the after hours. Even skipped a running workout - the most serious effect of sickness I've had to endure here (thank Dad for all the good health). After recovery, I decided I needed to start eating better. So much of the food that "normal" people eat has problems. Red meats are over used as source of protein, or if chicken, tuna, or eggs are featured, mayonaise is often mixed in. The all too common practice of removing the grain from all grain sources is as prevalent here as in the US (leaving neither fiber nor protein). Many nationals in the capitol also have a terrible diet, due to the bread, which they call "nan". In the farmlands they have good bread (whole grain "nan"), but the stuff they eat here has had the grain removed (they import the enriched wheat into the cities), and as this is their staple, well, they often aren't getting anything but fiberless calories with "enrichment". The World Health Organization should speak up on issues like this. We hired a cook for the teachers, but I've started doing more of my own cooking.

No Dari Progress

Work stress here is non existent. At Stetson Middle School, every day would open with a burst of energy; no one could pass near my room without some interaction (you Stetson teachers probably remember the repertoire of choreographed hand shakes, whispered secrets like "good morning" or "today is Wednesday" etc.). Mornings always lifted off enjoyably. Eventually, the problems of youth from severely troubled families would wear on us all and by the end of the day I had sometimes pretty much given up on spirited learning and was striving to maintain an educational routine that would keep the kids safe from each other. The day starts here much as it did there. But at the end of the day, you can find me standing on the playground, playing with the kids much in the same fashion that I used to interact with the North Philly kids as they were entering the building . It is as if the stress of the day never occurs here.
I have not been able to get and stay on any kind of a language learning curve. From July to August things were going pretty well - ISK responsibilities would be occasional interruptions in days devoted to Dari. Then, in September, Dari became the interruption in days devoted to teaching. Now, less than 5 hours per week are spent in Dari, as other things draw my time and energy. Dad and I had discussed something different in our planning sessions. Perhaps during the Winter Break the opportunity will arise, for the first time ever, to devote the entire day to Dari language acquisition.
One of the activities that gets done instead of learning Dari is the production of this journal. At first, e-mails were being written and sent just about every day. After a while, entries were copied and pasted from my e-mails to form a single document, saved as "journal". Then it became more productive to chronicle in the journal and copy and paste the results into e-mails. The later writings were less frequent but the product of deeper introspection. The journal that started as a daily diary was gradually transformed into a topical forum. But always, journaling has been an activity done instead of conversing in Dari. That is the paradox of "m" work: the better I communicate, the more work folks in the US think that I am doing, the less I am really accomplishing. Please think of that in a soon-to-come future epoch when communications might become more scarce.
No one seems upset by my recent lack of progress. I retain the ability to converse on a superficial level, and a limited ability to read and write (the envy even of some long-timers). My teachers are able to offer fewer hours due to the daylight restrictions (electricity is not dependable) and they notice my recent lack of preparation for classes. And Dad also knows. Yet I do not get the impression that anyone is upset. Another epoch is coming when a refocusing will occur. Maybe that epoch will start tonight.... (I tried to start it last night)....Dad is ultimately the One who controls the times and epochs.
This is so different from the intensity with which I learned Spanish. For my first year in Costa Rica, no one who spoke English would get much more than a polite greeting from me. Learning Spanish was not just my day time job, but also my life environment. Here, my day job is in an English only school (children speaking Dari can be accused of cursing) and there has been no success in establishing "a life" outside the compound after hours - "after hours" has a different connotation in a war zone. You can count the hours (and they are not many) spent in Dari.
Then, "add on" challenges abound. Pashto and Urdu are frequently spoken here and mix into the Dari. Hezarat Dari has an accent distinct from standard Dari. Tajik and Farsi are, like Dari, Persian dialects and are also often encountered. In fact, reading and writing happens only in Farsi, so that literacy is one thing and conversation something else. Some people translate the Farsi words into Dari as they read; this is not necessarily considered incorrect (as if, in English "t-h-e-e" was written but pronounced as "you"). The writings have a different alphabet and go from right to left (perhaps dyslexia would be an advantage). They are phonetical, but usually vowels are missing. Outside of these details, (and the fact that the ancient Greeks are the bad guys here), its just the same as life in Philly.

Sexto Ano como Debe Ser

Mientras uno corre dentro de las murallas de la Universdad de K'toro (sic), se nota a un numero veraderamente asombrante de estudiantes andando errante, nariz pegado a la pajina de algun libro. La memorizacion es lo que se pide. El pensar independiente y la capacidad de solucionar problemas no les son tan avalorados. Les enseñan a estos alumnos Asiaticos a respetar a sus mayores, a sus adultos, a sus maestros. Las creencias son recibidos desde los labios de los llamados "barba blancos", los ancianos sabios. Cada cual que nace aqui es de una fe por decreto legal. Los estudiantes esperan que alguien les diga que deben saber y que deben creer. Excelentes son para repitir las respuestas correctas. Alguien debia haber sido preparado para enseñar algo totalmente diferente...
(sic) toro quiere decir bull, pero el nombre de la ciudad no se debe mandar por e correo.
Cuando comenze a enseñar en las escuelas publicas en 1997, ya habia cierta capacidad intelectual mia alistada, cualquier examen estandard llevaria un resultado del noveno percentil. Y aquel "personalidad para la presentacion" ya habia sido desarrollado, pudiera yo hablar sobre cualquier tema, sin importar si tuviera conocimiento o no. Mantenia una buena relacion con algunos jovenes atravez del program RICY, que estaba en el mismo vecindario. Listo para hacer una obra profesional enseñando toda la materia de mi repertoirio, los alumnos en mi cuarto deberian ser aprendizes profesionales serios, sino la disciplina, consistente y justo, seria aplicada. Nada de esto serveria por nada en Kensington. La buena materia que llegaba en una forma interesante captaba el interes de la clase por poco tiempo, quiza diez minutos. Despues de viente minutos, la revelacion de que niños quienes maldicen a sus propias madres en la cara sin consecuencia no responderia a la disiplina como uno que fue criado en un ambiente mas civilizado, alumbro en mi corazon. Tanto debia sufrir y tanto debia aprender yo.
Siendo yo el unico que no fue Hispano dentro el Departamento Bilingue de Stetson Middle School, la seleccion de mis alumnos fue algo especial. Al inicio, enseñaba al nivel de principiante. Muchos alumnos con problemas graves de comportamiento nunca serian evaluados como proficientes en Ingles, asi que el grupo de ellos llegaron a ser mios. Mas adelante, enseñaba clases bilingues mas avanzados. En aquellos años los jovenes que se portaron malos fueron evaluados como mas proficientes en el ingles, de modo que de nuevo llegaron a ser mios.. Aprendia a comunicarme con los estudiantes corazon a corazon, en vez de decirles que habia que hacer. Los involucraba en la clase por la rutina o por el interes personal en la materia. Coercion y castigos, sin importar como se administraba, nunca producia resultados positivos. Notas satisfactorias no fueron necesarios para aprobar el año, una detencion seria una oportundid de no ir a una casa destrozada (prefirieron la clase a la casa), y suspensiones, tal y como la administracion los asignara, eran eventos inevitables que uno recibia al azar, unos dias en casa, como unos dias de enfermo que la escuela misma iniciaba. La pregunta que predominaba en el alma de los alumnos fue, "¿Hay alguien que se preocupe por mi?". Asi que mis clases siempre comenzaba con tiempo para chistes, conociendo y saludando, dando la mano en forma creativa y muy movidiza, la cual dio campo a las rutinas bien establecidas. Todo se centro en la motivacion estudantil. Los niños de once y doce años no se portan profesionalmente por nada, hecho que llegaba yo a disfrutar.
El termino "aula con la puerta cerrada" fue inventado para describir a mis clases. Por lo general, no mandaria yo a ningun alumno mio a ver a un administrador (los niños se portaron con mas respeto delante de mi que delante de los principales, y las suspensiones, como explique, nunca ayudaba en nada). Los problemas de mi aula fueron solucionados (o no) por mi, asi que la puerta fue cerrado desde adentro. Ninguna nueva estrategia "de milagro" (lo que fuese en algun momento) para solucionar todas las problemas educativas en la ciudad fue bien adiestrado en mi aula. Los administradores sabian que habia que visitar solo las aulas donde se ponian los alumnos buenos cuando la gente importante visitaba (la gente impotante fue muy interesada por ver milagros y muy poco adiestra en identificarlos cuando estaban frente de la cara), asi que la puerta de mi aula fue cerrado desde afuera. Del lado administrativa, ninguna evaluacion formal habia sido escrito de mis clases por muchos años (¿Quiza no se encontraban el llave? Tenian que haber hecho un minimo de dos evaluaciones por año, mas en elcaso que hubiera problemas). La administracion no se jactaba de mis clases, pero tampoco querria dividir mis alumnos por los demas maestros. Y en mis relaciones con tantos jovenes bien problematicos, ¡O lo que aprendia yo de los pre-adolecentes! Los grupos que se forman tienen un poder semejante al poder de la Palabra de Dios. Pueden llamar a ser las cosas que no existian, aunque en vez de dar vida a los muertos, con frecuencia dan la muerte a los vivos.(Romanos 4 17 b)
Finalmente, llegaba yo (tres meses antes que las materias de ciencia para sexto grado) en K'toro. Decidi apoyar la creencia que todo en el cielo se mueve alredador de una tierra estacionaria, asi que es lo que se observa cada vez que se pone a estudiar los movimientos celestes personalmente. La cienca es el estudio de lo que se ve, lo que se mide, lo que se comprueba. Firme, de verdad, fue la tierra debajo de mis pies cuando ofreci una "A" en ciencias para el año por cualquier alumno que se probia, con observaciones personales (los libros pueden equivocarse tan facilmente como uno), que la tierra se mueve alredador del sol y no visa versa. (El clave de la prueba es el movimiento relativo retrogrado de los planetas exteriores cuando la tierra los sobrepasa. Los modelos algebraicos en tres dimensiones, basados en observaciones tomados en tan solo dos dimensiones, tienden a probar que el modelo con la tierra en el centro es el mas acertado. El calculo diferencial y integral tenia que ser inventado y aplicado en tres dimensiones para probar que el sol, y no la tierra, ocupa el centro de nuestro sistema solar. Nada de esto va a suceder en mi aula de sexto.) Ahora, mis pobres alumnos tienen que enfrentar a un profesor quien, dia tras dia, insiste que la tierra es el cento de la sistema solar, pero quien es dispuesto a escuchar a cualquier evidencia al contrario. ¡Que polemico mas dinamico! Ante todo, los alumnos de sexto año son muy requete orientados hacia sus semejantes, asi que el poder de la presion que se pone uno sobre otro, y el poder que tienen cuando estan de acuerdo es mas real que los hechos adornados en blanco y negro, mas cierto de lo que se ven y se toquen. Ninguna evidencia que ningun niño pudiera describir pueda convencerme a mi, pero cualquier joven que avanca a un argumento publicamente llega a ser un hero instantaneo delante de los demas. Ellos son listos para aportar de cualquier modo, logica o emocionalmente. Asi que mis alumnos (mayormente asiaticos) tienen la confianza de discutir publicamente con el profesor, con su figura de la autoridad. Y como es muy poco probable que ninguno de mis evidencias de una sistema solar geocentrico, por mas frias, logicas, slam-dunk, o blanco y negro que sean, seran tragados por mi clase ("saben" que el sol yace en el centro), la discusion sigue sin fin, de una forma bastante saludable. (Si la tierra se movia en el espacio, los vientos generados por la friccion serian de tal magnitude que ningun ave se podria mantenerse en su nido.) Los libros nuevos acaban de llegar. Quiza estudiaremos el clima por el proximo tema.
No es tan dificil probar que si luna se gira o no por las observaciones personales (dado que el sol esta en el centro, puedo conceder el hecho por el projecto lunar y disputarlo despues por propositos de mi oferta de una "A". ¡Sexto año es, de verdad, un tiempo majico!) asi que lo hicimos por un projecto experimental. Una y otra vez hacia hincapie yo que no es importante si el hipothesis inicial es que la luna se gira o que la luna no se gira, la nota por ambos hipotesis es igual. Desde ambas posiciones uno tiene que seguir el mismo procedimiento, y terminaria probando la misma cosa (si, se gira, una rotacion por cada revolucion que hace alredador de la tierra, vaya, compruebalo para ti mismo.) CERO puntos por comenzar con la respuesta correcta en su hipotesis. 100 puntos para LA PRUEBA.
En cuanto a la matematica, comenze una leccion para el orden de las operaciones cantando mientras escribia sobre la pizzarra, cada palabra en su propia linea "Please, Please, Mr., Don't, Sing, Again" todos las letras iniciales in mayusculas muy grandes. Entonces, una explicacion breve de la leccion se dio (entre el cantico que todavia no se habia terminado). Durante la explicacion, las palabras Parenthesis, Powers, Multiplication, Division, Subtraction, Addition fueron escritos a la par de su respetiva letra mayuscula. Entonces puse 3*5+10 = 3*5+10 en la otra pizarra. Trabajamos en ambos lados de la ecuacion, con la participacion de la clase, haciendo un lado en el orden incorrecto, asi que comprobamos que 25 iquala a 45. Pedia que cada alumno copeaba mi ejemplo en su cuaderno. Algunos alumnos tienen un problema con esto, pero no les daba pelota mientras volvia a mi cancion. Despues de un coro mas, les explicque que como 25 es lo mismo que 45, si yo les pido $45 prestados y deveulvo $26 deben ser felizes. Mis alumnos sufren, aprendan a pensar, llegan a ser heroes delante de sus semejantes cuando discutan publicamente conmigo. Su profesor puede ser tan denso. El que se traga sin pensar lo que yo (o cualquier otro) enseña no aprobara, y ¡justamente asi! Hasta aquel punto, la puerta de mi aula habia quedada bien cerrado, pero ahora, se la tocaba desde afuera. Aquel dia fue la celebracion de nuestra gran apertura y el embajador de EEUU en Af. estaba abriendo la puerta. Entro con tres fotografos quienes lo grabaron todo. Eventualmente, los alumnos descubrieron mi error y me forzaron a cambiar a los señales "iqual a" para decir "no igual a" en los lugares apropriados. Mientras salia, el embajador dijo a los alumnos con tono grave pero con una sonrisa sobre sus labios, "el proximo vez que su maestro hace un error, hazle caso mas estrechamente." El Director de ISK, la Principal y el Presidente de OASIS SCHOOLS han expresado su satisfaccion por la calidad de enseñanza en el sexto grado. Ya se acabo el aula con la puerta cerrada.
El maestro no es un profeta intachable de la verdad, sino un aprendiz mas. Como usamos cuatro pasos para escribir, y cada cual tiene un lugar sobre la pared para poner sus obras escritas, tambien se encuentra un ensayo escrito por Mr. Drew, con los cuatro pasos evidentes. El producto final es un ensayo de dos parafos sobre como se arreglo el aula. Fue escrito en un nivel de quiza tercer año, con errores multiples de deletreo y de la gramatica (aun despues de editar algunos). Es una representacion honesta del mejor trabajo que pudiera producir. Es escrito en el idioma Dari usando la escritura Persica (de derecho a izquierda).
La clase de lectura comenzo con una cuenta emocional de la vacacion Navideña en 1968 cuando di yo diez vueltas a la luna, via TV, junto con los astronautas del Apollo 8. Despues del aterrizaje, TV no ofrecia mas viajes reales un cohetes (habia que esperar al Apollo 9 en Marzo), y estaba yo tan deprimido, hasta que, dentro de la biblioteca descubria que los libros tambien pudiera llevarme al espacio. Esos viajes eran aun mejores. Entonces discutiriamos las distrezas de de escuchar y de leer (ambos suceden en el mismo sitio en el cerebro). Si uno entiende a cada palabra, pero no "recibe el mensaje" ¿ha escuchado de verdad? Del mismo modo si uno puede pronunciar a cada palabra, pero el libro no le lleva por ningun lado ¿ha leido de verdad? Leer a un libro en sexto año significa mucho mas que leer un libro en quinto año. Los cinco sentidos son todos involucrados, como tambien los son los pensamientos y sentimientos del corazon. La escuela llega a ser mucho mas divertido cuando uno lee de verdad en vez de tan solo entender las palabras escritas.
Estudios Sociales tambien rindio a un chance mas para pensar como nunca antes. ¿Como sabemos que hicieron los que vivian muchos años atras? Ninguno que hoy vive estaba alli para verlos. Asi que aprendimos de los artifactos desde el primer dia. Llevaba yo a un traje lleno de artifactos (de mi propio dormitorio), y cada grupo de estudiantes tenia que construir a una historia personal del ocupante basado solo en la evidencia presentada. Salieron bien, cada grupo deducia que en aquel cuarto vivia un hombre que hablaba muy bien el ingles y el español, y que estaba aprendiendo el Dari, hace mucho ejercicio, se come suplementos nutritivos, es un Cristiano devoto, ha visitado (o fue visitado por) gente del Mejico o America Central - todo correctamente interpretado basado en los artifactos. Otro dia, los jovenes traian sus artifactos personales al aula y sus compañeros deducian sus historias personales, espresados en ensayos escritos. Los artifactos representan fuentes historicas primarias, los ensayos son fuentes secondarias. Los jovenes entendian bien el asunto.
La fiesta de Ramadan ha comenzado de nuevo. No corre de luna nueva a luna nueva sino comienza cuando los Mullahs VEN a la luna nueva y termina cuando los Mullahs VEN a la luna nueva de nuevo. Nadie puede decir con certeza de antemano cuando sucederia ni cuando se vaya a terminar.
Algunos creen que mis intenciones fueron de lavar el coco de los niños. Nada podria ser mas alejado de la verdad. Toda autoridad moral para lavar cocos fue deshechado, al proposito, en las primeras lecciones. Nadie podria acceptar ningun idea sin pensar el asunto criticamente de antemano de un profesor que ni siquiera accepta a un sistema solar heliocentrico. Es mi deseo de estar aqui lo suficiente tiempo para ver que estes niños llegan a ser adultos jovenes...
Lo que fue una ciudad de un millon despues de los años pacificos de la Taliban ha llegado a ser una ciudad de cuatro millones, despues de la conquista del imperialismo Yanqui. Muchos parecen disfrutar de semejante imperialismo, aunque el pais todavia pase por una temporada de guerra sostenida. La politica educativa de la escuela ISK es muy mia (o visa versa), asi que supongo que soy un agente para con todo esto. Quisierra multiplicar semejantes escuelas por todo lado en la Persia. Si tengo exito, el pueblo comenzara a pensar por si mismo. Si no tengo exito, el pais volvera a ser dominado por algunos heroes quienes, sin lugar a duda, no permitiran ni al pensamiento critico ni la busqueda sincera de La Verdad. Oponeran a los cielos y a la tierra, pero como seran contra los gringos tambien, seran "heroes", sin importar.

Sixth Grade the Way it was Meant to Be

While running the perimeter of the U of K-Town, you can not help but be struck by the number of students wandering aimlessly, alone, with their noses stuck in books. Memorization is the order of the day; independent thinking and problem solving is not so positively valued. Asian students are taught to respect their elders, their adults, their teachers. Beliefs are handed down from the "white beards" (old, wise ones). Everyone born here must be of one faith by legal decree. Students expect to be told what to know and what to believe. They excel at regurgitating the right answers. Someone had to be prepared to teach something completely different...
When I first started teaching in public schools in 1997, there was already an intellectual capacity to draw on; any kind of standardized test could bring in a score 90th percentile or above. And that "presentation personality" had already been developed; I could speak at length on any topic, with or without knowledge. There was a good rapport with (some) children through the RICY program, around the corner and up the street. Ready to be professional at teaching the loads of stuff in my repertoire, the children in my room would be serious professional learners, otherwise discipline would be applied consistently and fairly. None of the above would work for me in Kensington. Good material and an interesting delivery would only get me so far (maybe ten minutes on a good day). Twenty minutes later, the revelation that children who curse out their parents w/o consequences would not respond to discipline as one raised in a more civilized environment might expect dawned on me. I had so much to suffer and to learn.
Being the only non-Hispanic in the Bilingual Department at Stetson Middle School, my classes were stacked. At first, beginner level bilingual classes were my assignment. Many misbehaving students would never be evaluated as proficient at English, and so the group of them became mine. Later, I taught the more advanced bilingual classes; those years many misbehaving students were evaluated as being more proficient at English, so the group of them became mine. I learned to speak to the hearts of students instead of telling them what to do; they would move better by routine or by personal involvement. Coercion and punishments, no matter how administered, never produced positive results. Passing grades were not necessary for promotion, detentions would be an opportunity to stay away from home, and suspensions, as doled out, were unavoidable random events that simply meant a few days off - a school initiated sick day. The prevailing question in the students' souls was, "does anyone care about me?" So my classes always began with room for silliness, meeting and greeting, creative hand shaking and full body gyrations, which gave way to well established routines; it was all about motivation. Eleven and twelve year olds are remarkably unprofessional - fact that I learned to enjoy.
The term "closed-door-classroom" was invented to describe my work. Rarely would I refer a
student out to an administrator, my room's problems were solved (or not) by me - the classroom door was closed from the inside. Each new "miracle" strategy (whatever that might be at a particular point in time) for inner city education was rarely on display in my room - the administrators would keep my door closed from the outside when important people (the important people seemed to be interested in miracles and unable to identify them) came to visit. No formal observations of my class were written for the last several years. The admin did not boast of my class, nor did they ever want to split my class up and give them to other teachers. And, dealing with so many problematic youth, what I learned about pre-teens!!! The peer groups have a power akin to the Word. They can call things into being that did not exist, though instead of giving life to the dead they often deal death to the living (Romans 4:17b).
If ISK had been my first teaching assignment I would have applied discipline whenever the students were less than professional learners. The tragedy would have been that ISK students would have simply respected that and learned to absorb information as it spouted copiously forth. Yet now I know that pre-teens can not be coerced into open-heart, open-brain learning, a good teacher must always work (and play) to develop and maintain internally motivated students. Because of the rough classes I have become an expert at that. Stetson students simply would not have responded at all, they would have gone about their business as if no adult were in the room, unless they had first been drawn in emotionally. Coercion could accomplish nothing. Dad had prepared me to teach critical thinking from a position of student-felt internal motivation in K-Town. From day 1 I have been so thankful for the inner city experiences that had seemed so unfair and overwhelming at the moment. Light afflictions do indeed yield eternal glory.
Finally I showed up (three months before the sixth grade science materials) in K-Town. I decided to uphold the belief that everything in the sky moves around a stationary earth - since that's what you see every time you look up. Science is the study of things that can be seen, measured and proven. Firm, indeed, was the ground beneath me when I offered an "A" for the year in science to any sixth grader who can show, from personal observation (books can err as easily as you or I can), that the earth moves around the sun and not visa versa. (The key to the proof is the observable retrograde motion of the planets - three dimensional algebraic models, based on two dimensional observations, only tend to "prove" that the model with the earth at the center is more accurate- differential calculus had to be invented and applied in three space to prove that the sun is indeed in the middle and the earth is the body that has relative orbital motion. None of that is happening in any sixth grade class.) Now these poor kids are faced with a science teacher who, day in and day out, insists that the earth is the center of the solar system, but who is willing to listen to any evidence to the contrary. What a dynamic!!! First of all, sixth graders are so peer oriented; the power of pre-teen peer pressure and agreement is stronger than black-and-white, see-it-and-touch-it fact. Something in the air tells these kids, as a group, that their teacher is wrong. No evidence that a child could present will ever convince me, but whichever student would publicly advance a reason for a sun-centered solar system becomes an instant hero in the eyes of the class, who readily assist in any way that may be possible, logically or
emotionally. So my mostly Asian students will confidently disagree with the teacher, with their authority figure, en masse. And as none of my stone cold smug, slam dunk, black-and-white evidences of a geocentric solar system are likely to be swallowed by my class, the discussion goes on and on, in a healthy sort of way. (If the earth really rotated in space, the wind generated by the friction blow all the birds off their perches.) New books just came in - earth science; maybe we'll study weather next.
It is not so difficult to prove that the moon spins by personal observation (given that we assume a sun-centered model, I can make that concession for the moon project and then withdraw it for purposes of later discussion - sixth grade is such a magical time!) so we did it as an experimental project. Over and over again I point out that it does not matter if the original hypothesis was that the moon spins or that the moon does not spin - equal credit for both. From both positions you are drawn to follow the same procedure, and end up proving the same point (it does spin - one rotation for every revolution it makes around the earth, go out and prove it to yourself!). ZERO points for starting out with the right answer in your hypothesis. 100 points for the PROOF.
In math, a lesson on "order of operations" started like this: first I sing a song as I write on the board, each word on a different line - Please Please Mr. Don't Sing Again - all the first letters in huge caps. Then a brief intro to the topic is given, while writing Parenthesis Powers Multiplication Division Subtraction and Addition next to their respective cap letters on the board. Next, 3*5+10 = 3*5+10 goes on the other board. I work both sides of the equation with class participation, messing up the order of operations on one side, to end up with 25=45. I ask that everyone copy our example in their notes. As some students have a problem with that, I ignore them and return to my song. A minute later I explain that 25 equals 45, so that if I borrow $45 dollars, you should be happy if I return $26 since 25 is really the same as 45. My students suffer, they learn to think, they become heroes to their peers when they publicly disagree. Their teacher can be sooooooo obtuse. He who unquestioningly buys into what I (or anyone else) teaches them will end up failing - and rightly so!. Up to this point, my classroom door has remained quiet closed,
but now there is a knock from the outside. Today is the day of our grand opening celebration and the US Ambassador to A. is opening the door. He enters with three photographers who record everything. Eventually, the students discover my error and equal signs can be easily changed to not equal signs. As he leaves, the Ambassador admonishes the students with a smile, "the next time your teacher makes a mistake, make sure you pay closer attention." The ISK Director, ISK Principal and OASIS President all expressed satisfaction with the way things are going in sixth grade. Closed-door-classroom no more.
The teacher is not an infallible prophet of truth, but a fellow learner. Since we use a four step writing process, and everyone has a place on the wall to publish their work, there is also a composition written by Mr. Drew, with all four writing steps evident. The final product is a two paragraph essay about how the classroom is set up. It is written on about a third grade level with multiple spelling and grammatical errors (even after some were edited out). An honest representation of the best work I could produce, it is written in Dari using Persian Script.
Reading class started with the telling of an emotional story about the Christmas vacation in 1968 when I orbited the moon, via TV, with the Apollo 8 astronauts. After splashdown, the TV offered no more moonshots (until March), and I was ever so depressed, until at the library I discovered that books could also take me back to outer space. Those trips were even better. Then we started talking about the similarities between listening and reading (they both are controlled from the same location in the brain, you know). If you hear every word, but do not "get the message" have you really listened? In the same way, if you decipher every word, but the book takes you nowhere have you really read anything? Reading a book in sixth grade means so much more than reading a book in fifth grade; it engages all five senses as well as the thoughts and emotions of the heart. School becomes so much more fun when you really read instead of just understanding the written words.
Social Studies also is a chance to think like never before. How do we know what people who lived long ago did? No one alive today was there to see them. So we learned about artifacts from the first day. I brought in a suitcase full of them (from my own bedroom), and each group of students had to reconstruct a personal history of the room occupant based on the evidence. They did well, everyone deduced that in that room there lived a man who speaks English and Spanish very well and is learning Dari, he exercises a lot, eats dietary supplements, is a devout Christian, and has visited (or been visited by) people from Mexico and/or Central America - all correctly interpreted from the artifacts. Another day, the kids brought in their own personal artifacts and their peers deduced their personal histories, expressed by written essays. The artifacts represent primary historical sources, the essays are secondary sources. The kids got it down right.
Ramadan started this week. It does not run from new moon to new moon. It runs from when the Mullahs say the moon is new to when the Mullahs say the moon is new again. No one can tell in advance exactly what day that will happen.
Some believe that my intentions were to brainwash the kids. Nothing could be further from the truth. Intentionally, all moral authority to brainwash was relinquished in the first few lessons. No one could uncritically accept anything else that might come from a teacher who will not even accept a heliocentric solar system. It is my desire to stick around long enough to see some of these children become young adults...