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| Students working on a bridge design challenge. Did you know that a playing card bridge easily can hold both a biology textbook and Midnight's Children? |
Yesterday, I decided to be honest.
I told them that I don't know much about electronics. I told them that my only programming experience is using Scratch. Barely. I told them that I have a sewing machine but don't even know how to turn it on. I told them that I have a lot of great ideas for our class, but I don't know how they are going to work out in practice, and we might have to make changes throughout the year.
They were surprisingly unconcerned.
As I was going through the syllabus and course requirements, they starting asking me questions about what was allowable. Can we work in groups? Yes. Can our group be the whole class? Yes. Can we continue work on a project we've already started at home. Yes. Can we one project fulfill multiple requirements? Yes.
I imagine it was liberating to hear the word yes so many times at school. It was even more liberating to say it.
At one point, a kid asked, "Why isn't all school like this?"
To which I suggested perhaps we shall wait to see how it all turns out before we start dismantling the status quo entirely. Because I still don't know how it will turn out. I still can't be sure that I will be a good enough teacher for this class. I still can't be sure that the kids will learn what I want them to learn, the things I want to learn myself--how to be more creative, how to be more confident, how to be accountable, how to take a risk, how to fail and survive. I'm not even sure if all of them will show up again today, or if some will make a hasty beeline for their counselor this morning.
But for right now, I'm going to trust the words of e.e. cummings in the poem "love is a place":
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds
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