K, my former student who has written so beautifully and with such great courage about her experience promoting stories in her IB school this year, and the unexpected support she got from her wonderfully open teacher, now shares her thoughts on how next year is setting up for her. The blog is very direct and I wrote to her as much:
“K you have validated a lot of teachers in this email, all of us who believe that comprehensible input is the way to go in the teaching of languages. However, it may offend. So, it’s up to you. Do we publish this? Of all people to misjudge your brilliance, this French teacher has missed YOU, who you are, your refusal to compromise, your stance for change and truth and full exploration of what may not be popular in education but what may indeed be of great possible good to millions of people. What say you?”
Here is her response, and it is no surprise:
Of course, put it on the blog. I don’t care if she’s mad at me next year. Those who choose to be awful and say mean things aren’t worth my time, so I really don’t care. Thomas Paine in Common Sense stated: “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
So here it is, blog #24 from this wonderful colleague (I say colleague because, though still a student, she has taught a lot of French to a lot of people this year):
Mr. Slavic –
I need some help. I have a few questions, that there might not be answers to but please let me know what you think. I have known that next year I shall have a different teacher. It’s the way IB works. She next year, my current teacher my junior year, and either one of them senior year. The other teacher teaches traditionally and has been generally unwilling to try anything else. This is “fine” (not really, but that’s the way things work sometimes). Anyway, she came to our French class yesterday to explain our summer assignment for her class next year. I knew this was coming, too. She greets us in French, and when we all respond in French, she smiles…. until she sees me. She looks at me and smiles , but not a real smile, it’s fake and mean-hearted , almost like a disgusted smirk. As she passes out the packets, she says to me, “Next year, I will not tolerate any of that story stuff, I think it’s ridiculous . I respond, “Je sais, Madame. Je ne veux pas créer des problèmes pour vous.” She moves on and starts explaining what we have to do, and how important grammar will be next year. A girl from the lunch group asks “Why do we have to do so much grammar? Stories are better. They are easy and fun, and we get to know words that we actually use.” She glares at the girl and then at me. This girl talked to me afterwards and said that she was worried about French next year, and might not go. How do you explain to someone that they have to do something and basically lie because they still have to do something even if something else is way better? Someone has to be the calm rational adult even if that person isn’t an adult. I will continue the lunch stories next year since no one can really stop me…. they can, according to a few supreme court cases about speech in schools, but they haven’t read those. However, my heart breaks for this girl and the others. Stories are better, they know it and so do I. This is (going to an extreme) denying kids the opportunity to have a high quality education where they can learn without hassle. In my opinion , it’s a human right.