I Can't Be Serious...And Why I Shouldn't Be

My seventh grade math teacher told me to wear all black the first day of school, even the first week. To tie my hair into a high, severe knot. She advised me to invest in faux librarian glasses – the ones with the pointy corners - to make me look more serious. I was not to laugh or smile. I was to be stern. I could do it.

I don’t think she knew me very well! Or, she saw already that I have absolutely no poker face and am prone to constant smiling, boisterous laughter, and snark.

There was no hope for me to be serious.

Fortunately, not only am I not able to be that bland and monochromatic for a day or a week, but I also realize that I shouldn’t be. I don’t want students to see me as a robot or machine or ice queen. They should see me as real. Because that’s the way I see them. Real. Honest (sometimes frighteningly so). Kind. Hilarious. Struggling. Depressed. Mine.

High school students are people first. And, they are growing people. There is a prevalent attitude that somehow they should already be fully formed human beings, responsible for ALL of their choices as if they’ve been paying electric bills and federal taxes since their elementary days. The problem is, they are still kids, still human. Yes, they will goof up and make mistakes. However, instead of destroying them for the error of their ways, it is our primary job to reteach them. In the same way that we revise and reteach academic skills and content, we should also revise and reteach behaviors and choices. Talk it out. Ask questions. Offer advice. Students aren’t fully grown adults yet. They still have time to learn and thrive, and they deserve the chance to do so.

Don’t we all?

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