This afternoon, as I was drawing lines of longitude and latitude on the board, and the kids were taking notes, Mack said, “Could you MOVE?”

To me.

This is how this group of kids talks to each other and to me. And you know, I’ve had conversations about speaking politely and treating others the way you want to be treated and using school-appropriate language, tone, and volume.

Nothing.

So when he said that, I pulled out my most caricaturish polite voice and said:

“Amy (the kids call us by our first names at this school), would you mind taking two tiny steps to the left so I can see the fascinating lesson you’re demonstrating on the board and I can write all this interesting stuff down? If you could do that, that would be wonderful. And by the way, you’re such a great teacher. I appreciate all that you do for us.”

He looked at me like I had stuck a fist up my nose.

But.

But.

Later on, I heard some of the kids saying to each other during the read aloud, “So-and-so, would you mind sitting back down? It’s hard for me to see the pictures when you’re up in front like that.”

Wow. Modeling works. If it’s ridiculously over the top. When I told her about this incident, my friend Sam called it “the puppet show”.

Yes. Something that works.

I don’t want to create a me vs. them mentality in the class. I don’t want to have separate teacher supplies and student supplies. I want all of us to use the same markers and pencils and whatnot. I want my class to be a happy little socialist microcosm.

But last week something happened to make me reconsider.

[REDACTED]

(Ed. note: I can’t in good conscience post what I just wrote. If you’d like to read it, email me at amy@avidbruxist.com or whatever email address you use for me, and I’ll send it to you.)