october twenty ninth

A good teacher isn't afraid to push for something higher--when they don't get to where they want to go. I just find it really interesting the kinds of questions kids ask (says a lot about how they think) so I recorded a few from Mr. Cohen's class today:

"Isn't that a run on sentence?"
"Technically, yes."
"Then why's it in books?"
"Because it's art. You have to know rules--otherwise it's just random."

They have such an unashamed inquisitive nature about them that's really rare in any other age (except maybe senior citizens).

I also sat in Ms. Ohle's class, here are my notes:

The class started with the posing of the question, "what is persuasion?" Each of the students came at the questions so differently--at different angles, carrying what their motives are. Here are some of the responses:

Persuasion should...

• Be an argument
  
• Get you something
• Be about a world issue
• Be about ideas

At first they thought persuasion should be black and white--the classic one-sided "why our school shouldn't have uniforms" type of persuasion, complete with five paragraph intro-arguments-conclusion format.

With a little guidance, though, they stepped away from that rigid an explanation. I think the most interesting turn came from the last bullet, which illustrates when one girl turned persuasion to something that should be about ideas.

What's interesting about Mr. Cohen's relationship with Ms. Ohle as mentor to mentee is that when he was sitting in her classroom observing, there was a moment when he couldn't resist getting up and teaching something. That's what a teacher is I think--someone who can't resist speaking up about something. He wanted the ideas in her classroom to turn a certain way as well as the student to benefit from that.