My time as a high school teacher

Of all the job offers I ever imagined might someday come my way, none surprised me more, nor made me laugh harder, than the recent invitation to act as writer-in-residence at Greensboro Day School. At the time of the initial email, I couldn't imagine what Bill Moore, English teacher and writer-in-residence coordinator, could possibly say that would make me re-enter a classroom. (My only previous teaching experience was a horrific half-year teaching middle school kids Hebrew on Sunday mornings. Good times.) As it turns out, Bill was able to offer what may have been the only possible thing that could have made me accept the gig: a week. That's right - at Greensboro Day School, the writer-in-residence spends a mere week in their position and I am a person who fully believes I can do anything for a week.

So off I went last Monday to talk to high school English classes about effective opinion writing with a coup de grace on using healthy skepticism in reading blogs and healthy fear in posting personal (or naughty) stuff on blogs. As I said to them, though I think it's a pretty safe bet to think that I won't agree with everything I've posted here should I reread my own words in five or ten years, at least I can know that when I wrote it, I wrote with all earnestness.

There were a lot of surprising things about my week at GDS. Foremost, that I enjoyed it. Let it be no reflection on the kids that I thought I wouldn't - the aforementioned disastrous teaching experience suggested that I am just not cut out for teaching, and subsequent experience as a girl scout troop leader left me with the belief that I am most effective when dealing with kids in very small groups... preferably groups of one or two.

The GDS students certainly made the week easy. Out of 23 or so classes, only one child rolled her eyes at me, a moment that was overwhelmed by the rounds of applause I received in several other classes. Also - much to my delight - I heard many truly interesting opinions stated incredibly well. Among my favorites were a piece on the trials and tribulations of life, a pro-swim center piece that I'm convinced could have pushed through the bond, and a David Sedaris-esque piece about the evils of women (the kid was disappointed that I loved it - I assured him he would have to work much harder to anger me). There were plenty of other well-argued points, full of reason and maturity. Perhaps most amazingly, these were churned out in about 15 minutes in order to leave me enough time for my lead-in about the importance of bravery and restraint in opinion writing and to offer a little feedback in response to the pieces read.

I also noticed a couple of interesting things that could be social commentary or could be a coincidence. For example, the writing assignment I gave allowed the kids to pick any topic they wanted and it seemed that the more advanced the class, the more freaked out the students were at the idea of a free write. One kid explained that they are so used to writing in response to prompts that this was unnerving because so alien. Also, the African American kids seemed to be less likely to share their pieces... particularly the kids who wrote on things like stereotypes and fitting in. Could be a sign that they feel out of the mainstream of GDS and didn't want to read anything that would make them even more conspicuous... or not...

In the end, I suppose I hope that I was able to convince at least a couple of kids that despite their position of relative powerlessness, that opinions stated well can not only add to the dialogue of our country and perhaps influence the opinions of others, but also show adults who are disconnected from their teen years that the youth of America are a force to be reckoned with.