I was in my child's 3rd grade class earlier in the week reading out loud to the children and monsters a book about Unicorns, or more correctly a book about a Unicorn about to be born, which in no way sounds like fun to me especially given the mother of the Unicorn in question is a Horse.
Thankfully the teacher was otherwise occupied and not really paying attention because it gave us all time to talk about what we thought might happen in the case of such a supernatural birth and what exactly it means to be "in foal"...you know important stuff.
I really do not like reading a loud to anyone, it is just a weird quirk I have. Mostly because it distracts me from my own imaginings, so it always surprises me when rapt little faces look at me and beg me to continue. I have been told that I "do voices" of which I am entirely unaware, but it must be because that is how I hear things In my head when I read.
But that is neither here nor there. We finished the prescribed chapter and though we all wanted to go on and learn more about the fearsome owner of the horse, and her kindly young girl caregiver and most importantly the foal, which we secretly talked about maybe more than we should-how did it get in there? -because it would be Unicorn was it magically conceived?- Did the Flaxen cord have anything to do with it?-what exactly is Flax? You know important stuff.
Anyway after reading I was asked to help the kids with their drawings of geometrical shapes, yay, I always love it when kids have to draw things according to prescription...NOT! This is how I found out the rule of the class was you could not under any circumstances sharpen your pencil during class. What the Hell? Really? So if you break your pencil, use it up, or in the case of one child the absent minded teacher steals your pencil you cannot sharpen one because....why? The earth may fall out of rotation?
It is these sort of rules that make me feel like I really should be in class more often. If only to bring in freshly sharpened pencils everyday like a bouquet of flowers. Now I know it can be a distraction that little children and other monsters will use to sharpen their pencils and avoid a task, but really, maybe they need that avoidance minute.
Or maybe they need a really newly sharpened pencil. I was thinking to myself how when I was a child and computers were not yet the norm, a new sharpened pencil made me want to do new things. Somehow I was more excited about math, spelling and yes even geography when I could write beautifully and precisely with a nice sharp point. We all have our thing that makes us feel good and I think maybe some of us should re-think our rules around distraction in order to make others feel good.
So I sharpened pencils in the "NO SHARPENING PENCIL TIME" The teacher after all could not tell me not to, and I think everyone should have something that makes them feel empowered.
I don't know why, but the teacher still looked to me for help on the "GUM ISSUE" after that, (GUM ISSUE=Absolutely no gum at anytime for any reason) Since I have older kids she wanted to have me back her up regarding the "Universal GUM LAW" in school, apparently she thought the kids would quit it if they knew their Miley Cyrus aged cohorts also couldn't chew gum.
So Naturally when she asked me if kids in Jr. High and High School could chew gum I threw her a bone and answered with a quote from one of my favorite Gurus: "Chewing Gum is Really Gross, Chewing Gum I Hate the Most"~Willy Wonka.
I think from the giggles that the quote will work out in her favor. You just gotta know how to relate.
And bring your sharpened pencils.
The Pencil Rule.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite know why teachers do that. It was The Law when I was in grade-school, also, and it made just about as much sense.
The gum-thing I could understand.
(Nowadays, I'd think they'd have more trouble with cell-phones. Oh, well....)
Oh, I can relate to this very well. Hopefully... and rather thankfully... these little units aren't in the hands of a scary nun who has a cane tucked behind her desk in order to enforce that rule.
ReplyDeleteOne which I, like you, couldn't understand when I was little. But, as happens to all of us, I grew up.
Now...
I now teach, albeit much older students, and have come to the realisation that kids who have grown up having to adhere to rules in classrooms make far better students in college/university.
Those of our intake who herald from a Montessori/Free school type environment just can't cope... neither can they spell or adhere to timelines, organise their workload and generally function within the constructs of organised institutions of learning.
I sincerely doubt they're able to function in any organised institution which requires seemingly mindless rules to be adhered to... which is fine if they're going to grow ganja and live an alternative lifestyle.
Unfortunately, many have been "educated" to believe they can do anything they please and get rewarded for it. Which is all well and good for their fragile egos while they're young... but doomed to produce defective little units in the real world.
Sad, but true.
There is that problem Malice, I noticed it in myself. Free thinking is not what is looked for in College, at least in many of the classes I took, resulting in some poor grades as I learned some professors don't want to defend what they are teaching, However there should be room somehow for all ways of learning.
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