The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away…

Quote of the week:

“Mr. John, I didn’t do my homework, because, remember, I told you I don’t like history.”

True story.

We are in the second week of classes, following a relaxing weekend with the full-time boarders, including trips to a snazzy bowling alley in a hotel in downtown Amman (what a great peppery, hamburger they made!) and of course face-time at the haven of Saturday teen-age life, the Mall.

But of course life really revolves around the academic classes, those little 45-minute bundles of promise, rambunctious behavior and teen-age tang. The other day I announced at lunch with some colleagues: “I have figured the cosmic scheme! It is so simple: The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away.” The 8 of us laughed, and then we all started running the script in our head of what had transpired in classes in the last few days—the pattern revealed itself as that remarkably simple. You would have a good class. “Huzzah! Hooray! Teaching is a breeze!” Ahhh…that would be followed by a bad class. “Argh! Drat! I have reached the nadir of my career!”

Now I am a Libra, and we are known for our sense of balance.

Stop laughing Chuck—that is what all the astrologists say about Libras!

Frankly, I can’t remember a time when there was such an odd balance of this psychic “give and take.” You want examples?? I had a class the other day in which we talked about the concept of point of view, and we analyzed our individual families and how our own historical baggage shapes our world view. The students were excited about connecting bits of information in their family past to their interests and priorities in the world of 2007. Then this very enthusiastic student came forward, the student whom on the first day professed his love of history, said, “I read a history of Kuwait that my grandfather wrote, and it is easy to tell his point of view.” As I waited for some interesting tidbit, the young man, sheepishly said, “of course my grandfather was the King of Kuwait.” Indeed! It didn’t seem to impress the other students all that much, and then Sarah, one of the students who enjoyed Howard Zinn so much, got us back on track. “So what in Howard Zinn’s past do you think helps us understand the choices he made?” A little later, Sarah said, “I can’t believe you aren’t giving us the rest of the book! Where can I get this book?” See? There was intellectual electricity in that class!

That class was followed by a class when no one seemed to have a pen or pencil, and they didn’t quite understand that we would do work both in class and at home. Seriously, my goal was to have every student have a notebook open, a pen in hand, and seated. “Please stay seated….Don’t hit him….I asked you to bring the packet to class….” Who was this man saying this on an endless loop? Is this some Wonder Years-esque bored teacher?? Was that really me—just trying to control the class???

The class after that brilliantly pondered a single sentence in our reading in which we discussed the poetry of the words “euphoria,” and “evaporate.” They remembered details from class the day before, and even connected two events. The Lord Giveth Again!!

Twice a week there is an All-School Read, a time when students sit with their advisors and read something for pleasure…ponder that concept dear reader—how often, I ask you, has a school created a time for such serendipitous pursuits! I took my 5 advisees and we high-tailed it to the library to this one nook, that has become my favorite space on the entire campus. Oh, how nice, you might say. He loves books. He has surrounded himself with books. Yeah, right. This space is also the one place on campus where I can control the temperature in one of the few air-conditioned places. This nook is mine! When I am there with that remote thermostat in hand, you can practically hang meat in that reading area!

So my advisees and I get to this arctic-paradise-with-couches, and we discuss that we have the opportunity to read anything we want. Several grumble that they want to sleep, and I marshal my authority, and say we will read! One boy all of a sudden needs the nurse (so glad to know that that tactic of getting out of obligations has traveled across the oceans!) so departs. One boy goes and finds a book on South Africa and pages through it contentedly. Two young scholars decide that the magazine Car and Driver is all they can manage. But the last young man pulls out a well-worn copy of—drum roll please! Anna Karenina. I can’t help but notice that he opens this Russian classic to about half-way through the tome. “Razi, I gotta say, that is an impressive choice of a book for free time,” I observe rather casually. “Yeah, well, my dad said it’s a really good book, and he and I read Crime and Punishment together over the summer, so I thought I would try it.” Just to make sure he is not just full of bravado (have you ever been given the advice that to look smart, get a copy of James Joyce’ Ulysses, and walk around with a bookmark about halfway through!) I ask him some questions, and we have a great talk about the Crime and Punishment novel, and about how Raskolnikov’s struggles still resonate in today’s world. I remember reading Crime and Punishment for Mr. Justice’s English class in high school, and really enjoying it. However, I think I loved all the books in Mr. Justice’s class. (Wait—I take that back. The James Joyce one, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man—nah, I didn’t get it then, and I was always afraid to try that Joyce-chick-magnet-advice for college.) It was really a thrill talking to Razi about these books. Ahhh…these great kids! The scale tips yet again.

And then in class…we are making timelines of our lives. “What are 13 events that have shaped your life?” Strangely enough, some are not very interested in the exercise. One boy has done no brainstorming, and I say, “why don’t you draw the line itself, and mark off the years and then you can fill it in with exciting events.” He looks a little world-weary, which is odd for this very young boy, and says, “nothing has happened to me.” I remind him that he was, in fact, born, and his parents probably found that very exciting. And just the other day we met the King! After 20 minutes, all he had on his timeline was the phrase, “I was born.”

And He taketh away!!

You get the point…and at least I am recognizing the swing of the pendulum. The laughter at the dining table showed that my colleagues also understood the veracity of the phrase. I now have teachers checking in with each other: “was that class a giveth or a taketh??!”

It’s just, to be honest, I have been used to a beautiful symmetry in classes at Hackley, and a harmonious consistency to my classes. Somehow as I look back on those lessons, my classes have taken on a food analogy (big surprise!) of the wonderful Cincinnati Graeter’s Ice Cream: wonderfully rich ice cream and high in yummy butter-fat studded with irregularly shaped bittersweet chocolate chunks but predictable in the abundance of those heavenly chips…

Oh. Sorry. I guess the imagery of the ice cream got me carried away.

But in this giveth and taketh process it has forced me to think about what we are doing in these early days at KA—lots of behavior modification, and vigorously trying to spark curiosity. It has piqued my interest why these delightful teen-agers (and seriously, 90% of them are just a delight!) do not yet demonstrate the level of curiosity that I imagined. Maybe it is because they have never been asked their opinions, their observations, their reactions to things around them. I find it interesting that it is hard to get them to notice things—it was hard for them to draw a map of our school; it was hard to get them to remember turning-points in their lives; it was hard to get them to discover what makes them angry in the world.

It’s as if there has been a veil placed over them, and we are all trying to lift that veil. Could that image be helpful as an educator? Could it be that in a society where people have worn, and some continue to wear veils, that they figuratively and literally, have a veil obscuring things from them?

Could it be that in our world of American democracy we have an enhanced curiosity because we have treasured freedoms of expression? Could the teachers really be dictators in other schools acting like the Mr. Mc’Chokumchild of Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times?

I am working on a project with the librarian, and she asked me what I thought of our students. I said candidly, “When I work with them one-on-one I am energized. When I talk with them at mealtimes, I enjoy them. In class—well…it is taking time! I told her of my mantra: The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away. She smiled and said, “it is so rare in these schools for anyone to challenge the students. They are just little robots, and if we can excite them, we may fulfill His Majesty’s hopes.”

I mentioned that it can indeed be frustrating and discouraging, but I am one to stay the course and for me, hope spring eternal.

Miss Afaf, the librarian, asked, “do you know our word, inshallah?” I nodded that I certainly do know this word. She smiled at me, and said, “Keep inshallah in mind—because we can do nothing by ourselves.”

Another mark in the category of Giveth.