The students found the room and decided on a desk more quickly than they had on the first day. They settled down and waited. They knew that perhaps not the second day, but soon a little drama would be acted out. The class was interested in this scenario which is performed every year in every class: who was going to run the class—the teacher or some of the students. The second day and perhaps the rest of this very short week the students and the teacher would both be sizing up the lie of the land. Some teachers started with an advantage or handicap based on their reputation.
With some teachers the answer was obvious they were going to run the room. First someone would have to cautiously test the waters. Some teachers responded immediately and the student knew right away he was going to have to be the class clown or the pain in the neck in someone else’s class. Sometimes the test worked. It looked like the teacher was going to be a pushover. Perhaps that would be enough for one day, but soon one or more of the students would try something else, something small, just to get a clearer picture of the situation. They knew they still had to be careful because some teachers have a high tolerance level, but you’d better not cross that line or else you’d be smacked down. And the third group, the group that the students were looking for, were the teachers who either never had had classroom control or over time had lost it and they would be the pushovers.
So the first week or so everybody was getting to know each other. It was a mix of first impressions, hearsay, the little jockeying that was going on and even the time of day. Between classes students would compare notes.
“You’ve got Lorenz? Boy you’re lucky!”
“You’ve got Breitzer? She’s good.”
“Kader, he’s lots of fun.
“ Milkowski? Watch out, he’s tough.”
“Lalagos? He’s nice and if you pay attention, you’ll learn a lot.”
Mrs. Thomas? She’s really nice. You’ll like her.”
Most students liked a little fun and a little chaos never hurt to break the monotony, but basically most students wanted an education and they may not stick up for the teacher, but they were on the teacher’s side.
So we all started explaining to the students our objectives and goals. They wanted to know about homework, tests and grading policies. We pretended that those issues weren’t nearly as important as establishing a road map. We wanted to talk about learning, not grades, but the students knew that grades were the most important goal, the only outcome that counted.
Notice we didn’t ask the students what they wanted to do to learn, but we told them nicely, of course, what we wanted them to learn. I often thought that Hyde Park Career Academy was so fortunate to have Jackson Park, Lake Michigan, a golf course, the Japanese Garden and a one acre fenced-in natural area right across the street, an ideal science lab. The lake itself and the shoreline connected Jackson Park with the Lake Calumet Harbor region. If you knew what you were looking for, literally only steps from the Outer Drive and hundreds of thousands of cars, this was the place to start a biology class. This is still one of the richest and most important ecosystems in the mid-west. In September and October, and again in April and May, with migration under way, beaver moving back and forth between the park and Calumet Harbor, another rich eco-system, the groomed gardens and plants and trees dating back at least to the World’s Fair, why would anybody want to be inside?
So the biology teacher was going to start with the cell, “the building block of all life.” And, yes, it is important and yes it is a great way to start and yes many students, but not all, get it right away. But we have to remember what the goals of the curriculum were. The science curriculum talks about goal number one: high school biology was to introduce students to high school science, the scientific method etc. etc. But all high school science was really to prepare students for college biology and college biology101 was to prepare students for the next bio class and perhaps biology major. Someplace in that heady mix of cells, formulae, and the laws of gravity, students are supposed to gain an understanding and appreciation for the natural world. Sadly, they don’t. And, sadly, it’s another missed opportunity.
And to compound the ironies. We would send our successful students off to good colleges and they would come back at Thanksgiving and ask why HP didn’t have electronic microscopes. One student said, “You know, I really felt dumb, the first day, when the professor said let’s get started and I didn’t know how to use my microscope.”
And there were and there continue to be lost opportunities. The world famous Museum of Science and Industry is only six blocks away. I don’t remember any teacher ever taking a class there. The University of Chicago was also less than a mile away and there was one collaborative program between the university and the school for a few short years and the AP students went to the Court Theater once a year, but that was it. (As a matter of fact, it was not a good idea to be a young, black male walking across campus. The University had a convoluted relationship with our school and the community and being black just seemed to complicate everything.)
But the tyrannical bell schedule ruled. Don’t tell me about the importance of bell schedules, I’ve heard about the importance of bell schedules for thirty years and all the defenders and proponents of bell schedules are wrong.
But there’s the bell and it’s time for U.S. history. Four precious minutes—to hang out in the halls with one’s friends and then on to history. Now, if something in biology had caught a student’s interest, too bad. Photosynthesis might be intriguing, but you can only think about it third period, now it’s time to switch gears and think of the War of 1812. The student either had to forget it or store it quickly in the biology box in his brain because now it was time for history. Every day, every student would get a dose of science, an ounce of social studies, a dollop of literature, a tiny bit of composition, a milligram of mathematics, a smidgen of volleyball and a quick dab of acrylics. Contemplation was not part of the high school curriculum. The students were right; it’s all about Friday’s tests and on to the next unit, the first unit is history.
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