Week in Class: Week Three 2013
A routine has settled with the class, but all is not perfect, which is as one would expect at this point. Still the signs are good. I feel like there is a good base to build on with this group. The class is both productive and both want to learn and please me (not a requirement on my part–but still pleasant). Here is what happened:
Position and power
We read an account of the first successful Everest expedition (they got to the top, and no one died). Yeah, I haven’t name the climbers yet, there’s a reason for that. One of the things that is really easy to discuss with kids,even elementary school kids is social justice issues. They understand positions and people who have power, and those who don’t. When that power is arbitrary, or unfair they usually get it. During our discussions of the story I brought up some background about how the climbers, a sherpa guide and New Zealand climber, agreed to share credit and vowed not to reveal who had gotten up “first”. I talked about the sherpas, and how they are critical to these climbs, but are often regarded as “servants”, and when I was younger, I only heard about Hillary, the climber, and not so much about Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa climber. I pointed out that in the story, Hillary’s name is listed first. A funny thing happened on the assessments I gave at the end of the week. The students who wrote about them ALL listed Tenzing Norgay, before Edmund Hillary in their writing. They had absorbed that lessoon and applied it in their writing without me directing them to do so. It was their own choice. It’s a small thing, but interesting nonetheless.
Other issues have been coming up as we work our way through our class novel, Hatchet. Most of the students love it, but some of them are