Benevolent dictators

My classroom has served as a microcosm of the larger world in many enlightening and disturbing ways.  For example, as a young idealist, I wanted to empower my students in the decision making process.  What better way to learn about democracy, then to give them the chance to consider and debate those decisions that would directly impact them, right?  Well, after weeks of trying to plan a trip with my group of advisory students, benevolent dictatorships started sounding like an ideal form of government.  Instead of debating the relative merits of Waterworld versus playing video games at Boomers, I could just decide that we would go rock-climbing.  After all, I knew that there were some students who would be eternally embarrassed if they were ever seen in a swimsuit.  And wasn't I supposed to be helping my students unplug from all the technology that drowns their minds in stimuli?  I could think of ten reasons why rock-climbing was the perfect trip, but could I convince 17 independently-minded youngsters?  Much easier to dispense of the veil of democracy and just come clean - I'm making this decision and I hope that you will all come and have fun.   In fact, this is how it went down last May in my advisory.   Supreme benevolent dictator Young Whan decided that we would go rock-climbing and we did.  Bottom line - we all had fun.

Look, they're smiling!

I must admit that I did experience a mild feeling of regret at pushing their ideas to the side in order to make this decision.  While the outcome of the class trip was ostensibly a success, I wonder about what they learned from the process.  Perhaps, the takeaway was something like, "I don't need to work with others to make decisions.  It's easier if I trust someone in power and go along with what happens."  The radical college student in me was reprimanding me for having fallen so far from my ideals.  "Tsk, tsk, shame on you."  But, there is a harsh reality of competing agendas.  So many important objectives to reach and so few classes.  I want to teach students to think critically, understand content, read, write, pass the CAHSEE, catch up three grade levels in English, write a proficient Document Based Question essay for Social Studies...

Still, I remember the words of a young monk who was expressing his appreciation for the profession of teaching.  He told me that teachers have the ability to help young people learn how to live happily.  What's the point of being smart and doing well in school, if you use your success as an opportunity to exploit others.  It's funny that in his gratitude for teachers he was able to leave me with wisdom and guidance.  Without knowing me, his words had crystallized the essential value of my life's work.  Even if I churned out a bunch of Ivy League students who were great thinkers, it would be for naught if they did not have integrity, if they were unable to reflect honestly, or if they could not live in harmony with others.

Reconnecting with my core values as a teacher needs to be an annual exercise.  It would probably be useful to have this planned into my calendar for each summer vacation before I sit down to do any planning.  Thankfully, I work in a school where we have a vision statement that centers us on our purpose, and we have a culture that values social and emotional development on the same level as academic success (For more information on our school model, check out www.bigpicture.org)

This summer our staff was faced with a dilemma.  We wanted to introduce a model known as Discipline that Restores, which begins with students and a teacher in each classroom co-constructing "respect agreements" that everyone in that class agrees to.  In the midst of a professional development workshop on this topic, questions came up about how these agreements work across different classrooms.  "So, if a student has five different classrooms and teachers at the school, does that mean that she needs to adapt to five different sets of respect agreements in the course of her day?"  Luckily, most of our students stay with only a couple of teachers given our structural model, but still there could be confusion.

During one of the breaks, I huddled with my principal, and an elegant solution appeared.  We would bring all the class agreements together and create a master document that would apply to the entire school.  At MetWest High School, this means bringing together eight classroom's respect agreements.  I took on the task of convening a representative from each class to work collaboratively on examining the original eight documents and drafting a whole school agreement.   Certainly, this was a more manageable task than in your traditional high school setting, but I still harbored some doubts as to how this process would go.  As the adult member of the group, would I need to intervene and make some decisions for the group, and what message would that send if I did?

This story is still playing itself out, but this past Friday I was reunited with my own belief in the value of process... and it felt good.  It was our second session as a committee, and the students were reviewing each other's attempts at consolidation.  In total, we had roughly 30 agreements from each classroom, leaving us with 240 agreements that we needed to condense into a usuable document - somewhere around 40 agreements.  At this point, we had a draft of our final list, and our process was to read through each agreement of the original 240 agreements and determine if each one was represented in some way in the final document.  Can you say monotony?  I feared that this would slip into an exercise in rubber stamping, but the students approached the task with concentration and integrity.

It was truly inspiring to witness their dialogue.  Should we include "be kind?"  How is that different from "be supportive and helpful?"  We delved into the nuances of language and made both significant and subtle revisions.  But instead of seeing revision as annoying and time consuming (a response that I am all too familiar with), they approached revision with serious focus.  In fact, we were less than halfway done after an hour.  Before I could say anything, a student volunteered to keep working on it during her next free period without me.  Others quickly agreed to join in.  While I felt urgent about finishing, I could see the power in the process.  They were learning to make decisions, to see the impact of word choice, to listen to each other's opinions, to share their perspectives, and most importantly, they were fostering a sense that their collective work could help create a safer and more positive community at the school.  I believe that entrusting the students with this level of responsibility called forth their best efforts.  They knew that their work mattered.  It was real.