it will be over in a couple of weeks... someone will clean up the mess later... or the mess will just keep growing... do you remember the good old days... that illusion of...

this coming week is spring break here at chs... at some point during almost every period on friday, some student or teacher whined "this day is sooo long." but i didn't. i sometimes replied with mild sarcasm "o, you must be looking forward to something" and continued "me - i'm not looking forward to anything and so my day is just humming along very nicely." and it was true. no beaches wait for me (i assume the ski slopes are done). the trippers to scotland and england took off on friday after some apparently serious complications due to war fear. may they be safe.

some students - and no doubt their parents - could not wait for the official break week and jumped ship sooner. my class absenteeism was markedly higher this past week... and i've received several emails from various sunny spots asking about homework.

i'm not a vindictive guy... live and let live... i've heard that some people have lives beyond work and school... i do not take these absences personally... and yet... this fuzzy question comes to mind... how much school can a kid miss before it begins (not just technically, but actually) to have a negative impact on that student's learning?

in my courses, where i do not (in general) teach discrete bits of information but rather certain habits of attention, absences do not directly harm a student's grade as long as said student makes up the missed work. it's nearly all reading.... and then work on paper... or on the class message board. so what is the actual value of class time? what is actually accomplished in those forty to fifty minutes each day? is it just a glorious set-up for the homework assignment? have i become a virtually virtual teacher? what goes on in class? of what value - if any - is it to student learning?

we talk.... i talk... and i encourage students to talk... about the poem... about the story... the chapter... we listen to each other and consider the sense or nonsense of what we say... we read sometimes right there in class... usually out loud... and we talk about it... so i'd have to say that voices matter most in the classroom... the spoken word in action and interaction...

(is it just my voice? my voice is heard... but often it is heard calling for other voices to speak... questioning... wondering... mostly real questions... and in most classes a significant number of students are willing to speak... though always the larger number prefer the safety of silence)

what does a student actually miss when they miss my class? this interaction... this noise... this speaking... this listening... those pauses to consider... those negotiations of self... those risks... and judgments... and explanations...

shouldn't these absences hurt the student's grade? just for not being there. the grade... again... is largely irrelevant... the school policy on absenteeism... enforced or not... i don't want to talk about grades... or any of this stuff really... i'm on spring break...

this afternoon jay and i will start our road trip... one of my students suggested that i take a road trip... and write about it... so i will... we are driving down to mom's... driving a straight line more or less down i-55... no adventure... just safe... and that's good enough for me... i'll probably get some kind of war elegy inspiration from the road kill... "road kill makes me think of war... all the bloody parts..." ick...

see you in april...

Men are rewarded for learning the practice of violence in virtually any sphere of activity by money, admiration, recognition, respect, and the genuflection of others honoring their sacred and proven masculinity. In male culture, police are heroic and so are outlaws; males who enforce standards are heroic and so are those who violate them.

Andrea Dworkin

 

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