Captain Bob Patrick’s unit went into ground action today, earlier than most of us. He was kind enough to report back after the day, which sounded great after his first day on duty, with no major skirmishes:
Home after my first day at work, glass of wine, dinner finished, feet up. Wow. Oh wow. What a day. I have 195 students this year, in six sections. They are wonderful, beautiful kids. I am teaching Latin 1 and 2 this year. It’s my turn to start at the beginning and follow the babies through. I love teaching this level. Hell, I love teaching all the levels, but these are the levels I love teaching this year.
Besides the sheer experience of processing in my body contact with that many other beings in the room, I have a couple of things to share.
1. My babies, Latin 1, have come into the room expecting this to be a good experience. I cannot say enough about what a wonderful spin that puts on the atmosphere in the room even when there are 35 bodies. They told me that they largely decided to take Latin because a brother, sister or friend told them–“take Latin, you’ll love it.The teachers are wonderful. They are the best.” Of course, that’s wonderful to hear, but it means that what Caroline and I are doing has an effect beyond any one single group of kids. They talk to each other, and they are recommending us. Caroline and I both hold deep compassion for our students, and we use CI in our approach. In my opinion, those two things together create an open heart energy field that draws people to it. I’m pumped.
2. In my Latin 2 classes today, after all the start up stuff, most of which was sharing my Don’t Mess with DEA material, I had a little time for some Latin interaction with them. I called on a random student (not necessarily the best one in the room) and gave TPR commands around various items in the room. Every single one was able to respond correctly, and it clearly felt very good to the room. That was the point. You can still do this. You have not forgotten. It’s in you, and I knew it would be. What we do together is just that good. Then, I tried a little dialogue. It went something like this (translated out to the side):
- Salve, John. Quid agis? (Hi John. How are you?)
- Ago bene. Et tu, quid agis? (I am doing well. And you, how are you doing?)
- Ah, gratias, ago bene quoque. (Ah, thanks, I am doing well also).
- John, roga Saram quid agat. (John, ask Sarah how she is doing.) (This requires a subjunctive structure that these kids have never seen. no one blinked or hesitated over it)
- Quid agis, Sara? (How are you, Sarah?)
- Ago bene, Quid agis? (I am doing well, How are you?)
- Ago bene, gratias. ( am doing well, thanks)
- John, quid agit Sara? (John, how is Sarah doing?)
- Sara agit bene. (Sarah is doing well)
This required students to navigate between me and another student. It required them to change persons, and they all did it without error or hesitation. They did this on the first day back from summer break. I’ve never had this kind of smooth reconnection as I did today, but then, I’ve never done so much CI work as I did last year when they were first year Latin students.
3. Rather unrelated to CI work but totally related to one of my favorite themes: trust. At the end of one of my Latin 2 classes, a male student remained after to talk with me. He said he had to talk to me about the summer reading he had to do. He is a junior, and juniors were asked to read Into the Wild, the story (made movie) of a young man who, out of a commitment to living a better life, went into the Alaskan wild and lived alone, rather successfully, until a tragic series of events took his life after 13 days of agonizingly slow death. The student told me he found the book so depressing and awful. I began to just ask him open ended questions that allowed him to talk about and debrief what he was feeling (he had finished the book the night before). After a bit, he seemed to feel better. It was time for him to head to his next class. He came toward me, shook my hand, then hugged me and said: “You are just the best teacher.” I thanked him. I was deeply moved. I had just been there for a few minutes. This is what we do, whether we realize it or not. Most of the time, we don’t realize it. Today, I got the gift of realizing it one more time. It was a hard first day. I am exhausted, but what a gift.
Bob