Imagine Educational Utopia

Close your eyes and imagine educational utopia. Imagine a place where students of every background, race, culture, gender and sexual orientation passionately yet respectfully debate social injustice. Imagine those students actively listening to their classmates, considering their opinions, and politely countering with arguments of their own. Imagine the value of such interactions on each student and the impact that would have on society and the future. Imagine the power of such mutual respect and the social change it could inspire. What would such a place look like and how will I create such a wonderful learning environment?

I imagine it would look like this. The walls are decorated with inspirational leaders from around the globe. As diverse as the students are themselves, so are the heroes of social change that greet them when they enter the classroom. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world,” Mahatma Gandhi entreats them in bold letters. Further down the wall, Maya Angelou coaches, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  And between posters of Frida Kahlo and Ang San Suu Kyi lies the words of Abraham Lincoln in bright red print: “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” Wiser words have never been more resonant and relevant.

At the back of the class, I stand quietly observing the classroom discussion, only cutting in when necessary. It has taken several months, but I am finally pleased with the classroom built on respect that has developed under my supervision. Every morning I stand at the door and greet every student by name, letting them know that they are valued and important. I have carefully crafted lesson plans that highlight classroom diversity and build appreciation and empathy among my students. In my class, every student has a voice and every student's voice is appreciated. From day one, I have quickly addressed any hurtful remarks that were said during classroom discussion and used those incidents as an opportunity to discuss bigger issues like bullying and its detrimental and often catastrophic effects. It has been a slow road inching towards a culture of acceptance and respect, but finally the students have learned that hate and abuse will not be tolerated within the walls of the classroom. I only hope that the lessons I am teaching daily are extending outside into the halls, the sports fields and the world at large.

I had known entering the classroom on the first day of school that I would be dealing with students from many backgrounds, most of which would have experiences much different than my own. I am from a small town in rural North Carolina, but somehow I had found myself teaching at an international school in Bogota, Colombia. The surreality of it all was almost overwhelming. The class is made up mostly of wealthy Colombians with a smattering of students from other Latin American countries-- all native Spanish speakers. Mixed in are a couple of students from the United States as well as one Finnish and one Korean student. Somehow I needed to blend all this diversity into a cohesive and collaborative class and I was dealing with a class of sixth graders, all on the threshold of puberty, with hormones breeding confusion in their young minds. This was a critical time in their lives, and I realized that I had the potential to either be totally ineffective or create a lifelong pattern of respect. With head held high and shoulders squared, I boldly accepted the challenge of the latter. And that attitude had made all the difference.

On day one I had introduced myself to the class, described my vision for the class and let them all know that this was a safe place. In this class, it was ok to make mistakes. I'm not perfect and I don't expect my students to be perfect, but I do expect them to treat everyone with respect. As their first activity, they had brainstormed what respect meant and come up with their own rules for our class. It was my hope that if the students had control over the rules they would follow, they were more likely to observe them. This exercise had given me new insight into the values of the various students in the class. Next, students had interviewed one another and had given presentations to the class, in which they highlighted each other's uniqueness and pointed out things that they found interesting. This had started a pattern of celebrating the cultures represented in the class. That week, the students also had started journaling. I had encouraged them to write about things they witnessed in regards to social injustice or examples of students making good choices and how these episodes affected them. At first, the students had been reluctant to share their journal entries with the class, but as they began to feel safe within the classroom, they had begun to read them aloud and discuss them at length, learning from one another and developing a sense of compassion for their fellow students. The lessons learned through these exercises had been invaluable and bullying had disappeared from their behavior.

Of course, this whole utopic scenario is yet to come to pass, but I am optimistic that with the right tools and determination, this could be the classroom of my future. But no matter what happens, I will treat every student with respect and strive daily for objectivity. In turn, I hope my students will do the same.