Yesterday, I was a guest lecturer for my husband's 8th grade class, teaching a lesson on the history of penmanship in America, how it was used to emphasize class and gender divides, and why it's important to them now. I then gave them an example of a business thank you note for an interview and we had a discussion about the importance of such notes.
It was a great, if exhausting experience. He has 130 students over 6 periods. They run the gamut of social class and race and I was intent on acknowledging that. As the topic was broached, my husband was quick to emphasize that, like most of the literature he teaches, the history was very white and male. We discussed that the standards laid out for professional world are white, male standards and that we recognize that it's not fair. We told them that we hoped that by giving them the tools to succeed in the world, that standard will become less white, less male, and more fair. I tried to validate their community experience, emphasizing that, just because the standards of their communities and familes were different from the ones considered appropriate by the professional (white, male) world, it didn't mean that those standards were wrong or unimportant. We dropped words like "code-switching" and talked about it a little. Basically, we tried to do the best we could at acknowledging that the system our country functions on is unfair and skewed, while also teaching a skill that is considered outdated by some, but important by others. Every teacher I spoke to yesterday said that they were happy I was addressing handwriting, which they declare is universally terrible. The students have a one-to-one iPad initiative, but they still have to handwrite things and they will continue to have to handwrite things.
My favorite moment was bringing up a copy of the Constitution and asking if they could read it. When they said "no", I told them that it says that all 15-year-olds are required to enter the military. When they objected, I asked them to prove otherwise. Being unable to read it, they realized they couldn't. They also led into a neat conversation about the use of illiteracy by The Church to control the people (selling indulgences was met with universal disdain) and the focus on literacy within the US.
It was a good day. I have new appreciation for how tired my husband is when he comes home. He stands the entire day, walking, rarely sitting. The needs of these kids are real - kids who need to charge their iPads at school on the sly because they don't have electricity, kids who steal things to make their friends happy because they're poor and shy and want to have friends, kids who can't afford lunch. He tends to them the best he can and they seem to respect him, with some of his kids saying that he's not "really white" because he gets them. I also heard him congratulated by every class period on how attractive his wife was, with one kid demanding to see ID because he didn't believe my husband had a wife like me. While the part of me who recognizes how ingrained into gender roles that behavior is, my vanity also ensured I appreciated the compliment, because they really do intend it that way.
Of course, for every good day, there is a bad. The other side of being on my feet and active all day is that I've been out all day today. My skin hurts, my back hurts, everything hurts. But it was worth it. My husband's department head asked if I would do the same lesson for her kids, and of course I will. Having a bad day doesn't invalidate the good days. When they do, then I will have succumbed to illness. I'd rather have a good day and then deal with the bad day that follows than give up the good days.
