Student Questions to Think About

Last week was the first week of school.  Early last week, I was asked two questions in one hour that have caused me to think a lot.  Here they are with my thoughts:

In my classroom, I have a poster of Martin Luther on the wall, along with a few other famous Germans.  The poster has the 1529 portrait of Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder - probably one of the most well-known pictures of Luther.  The poster also has Luther's name along with the years he was alive.  Anyway, during my English class, a student pointed to the poster of Luther and blurted out, "Oh my god, wait! Why isn't he black?"  After a few moments to realize what the question actually meant, I explained to the student that the poster was a picture of Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King, Jr., and then I asked if anyone in the class could explain the difference between the two.  Crickets.  With a sad feeling in my heart and a slight tinge of annoyance, I calmly tried to quickly explain the difference between the two figures and the time periods in which they lived.  After about 3 minutes of explaining, I was done, but then another student blurted out, "So is he [Martin Luther] his [Martin Luther King Jr.'s] dad?"

The second question that's made me think followed shortly after the Martin Luther (King) incident.  We were discussing some of the works we'll be reading in class, one of which is Romeo and Juliet.  If you don't know already, I love Shakespeare.  I. Love. Shakespeare.  ...and pretty much anything written pre-1700.  My specialization for my English degree was in Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Literature, so I'm pretty geeked that I get to teach Shakespeare.  After explaining my love for Shakespeare to my class, a student raised her hand and asked, "So who is your favorite Shakespeare author?" - which then required the explanation that Shakespeare is just one person, not a genre.

As much as these two questions were facepalm moments, I feel that there's a lot to think about packed into these questions.  Yes, it was very - no extremely - disheartening to hear those questions.  I've never taught freshman English before, and I'd had wonderful visions of wild philosophizing and heated intellectual debates on the nature of symbolism occurring in my classroom.  With these two questions, it had become very clear that we would be starting with the basics - and I mean, the very basic basics.  I just spent three days on identifying subjects and verbs.

Anyway, truthfully, I wasn't just annoyed after I heard those two questions, I was angry.  Why hadn't anyone talked to these kids about Shakespeare before?  I could almost understand how most of the kids didn't know who Martin Luther was, but not knowing about Martin Luther King, Jr.??  Really???  Why hadn't their previous teachers talked about that stuff?  Why hadn't their parents taught them about it?

But then I realized this.  If they don't know all of this stuff that I think is very interesting and very important, I have an incredible opportunity by having these kids in my class.   I can't control what these kids come into my classroom already knowing.  I can't make up for their lack of experience or knowledge about literature or history, but I can fill in some of those gaps.  I get to be the one to introduce them to Shakespeare.  I get to be the one to make them think, really think, about civil rights issues while we read To Kill a Mockingbird.  I've realized that it's ok that they don't know who Shakespeare is yet, because they just haven't been introduced yet...and that's ok.  The more I think about it, I'm not even sure that I should have expected them to know...

The more time I spend teaching, the more I realize that I was probably not a typical kid.  I was very fortunate to grow up in an environment where learning didn't stop at 3:00 when school was over.  I was  so blessed to have parents who cared that I learned a lot and knew the value of learning.  I grew up in a home where the study of fine arts, history, and literature were appreciated and encouraged.  Most of my students probably didn't read and watch Shakespeare plays with their dad while they were in elementary school.  Most of my students probably didn't help put together an 8000+ piece puzzle of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  Most of them probably don't think it's normal to have half-naked statuettes by Michelangelo on the mantle.  Most of my students probably don't memorize lines from Robert Service poems and Shakespeare for fun.  The things I did as a child may imply that I or my parents (particularly my father) are nerds, but they helped make me into a person who loves learning.

I don't expect that my students experienced everything I did as a child, but I'm realizing more that some of them have had almost no support at home with reading or learning.  One of the most calming sounds for me to this day is the sound of my parents (or grandparents) reading aloud.  I'm lucky that I had a lot of people to read to and with me when I was young, which helped foster a love for reading and definitely helped in school, especially in English.  Some of my students have never been read to or haven't been read to in a very long time.  Some of my students are not asked "How was school?  What did you learn today?" when they get home.  Some of my students have no one at home to talk to about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Shakespeare.  My challenge this year is going to be remembering that that's ok and that I have an awesome opportunity to share fun, interesting, important information with my students.

(I would have probably had a more drawn-out, long-winded conclusion, but that last sentence pretty much sums it up.  It's getting late, and this post is way too long.)