What a Man Can Be, He Must Be

            Today was the first day of school. As another teacher quoted, “cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.” And yet, there was no havoc. There was no war. There were not even dogs (remember that time last year a stray got into the A building?). We have a new principal and new administration and finally, finally, finally, my school feels like a happy place to be. Kids were smiling, teachers knew what they were supposed to do and did it, and everywhere we turned our old students ran up to hug and fist bump us. It was hard not to grin all day.

Like this, minus the uniforms and raised hands. We freestyle in my class.

            My first lessons went well. There’s something about psychology that intrigues kids. And those IB students… I am mindblown.  Never in my wildest dreams, not since Norway, did I imagine kids could be this bright, engaged, and ready to learn. They have opinions about everything. They listen. At one point they were all leaning forward and one literally said, “go on, go on, tell us another [psychological experiment].” We have already opened fascinating conversations about race and gender, examining one kid’s statement that at home he acts Indian, but at school, kind of ghetto. After helping him find a better word for it, we talked about whether all people of one race act the same and how you can prove something about behavior. They are all far and away the most engaged children I have ever seen at this school. In short, I’m psyched for this year.

I came home and checked my email to find this (slightly excised) waiting for me from one of them:    

“I am extremely excited to be in your class for psychology... It was surprising that the first thing you did after sharing what you expected out of us students was asking us what we liked and sort of expected out of teachers. It's that kind of respect shown to students that make me enjoy a class more! I have a great feeling that it will be a great semester... I have a newfound interest in psychology and I really hope this will be an educationally fulfilling semester!”

I am jumping up and down with delight. Our class mantra will be from Maslow:

What a man can be, he must be.

This year, we actually have a shot at fulfilling it.