official hiatus

Hi Friends. I need to have a brief-ish hiatus from posting here. My schedule has become quite busy with teaching 3 labs, taking one class, and writing my thesis.

So I request your forgiveness. I see most of you on facebook anyways:)

I will leave you with this photo. This was taken by a sister of my friend. She is studying in Ghana. I thought it was worth approximately 1000 words.

They can't prosecute us all!!!

I was working in at AE2 elementary school in Seattle for a couple of years. It is a very cool school with extraordinary teachers. The mission of the school is experiential teaching. 

So in teaching American history, the 5th grade teacher Libby subjects her students to a subtle exercise in "taxation without representation". It takes place over a few weeks, beginning with earning "tokens" for rewards such as extended recess or go to lunch early. Next, the tokens are required for the "privilege" of going to recess on time. These new rules are simply posted on the door for students to see, and any complaints receive a standard answer: "I'm sorry, we're not accepting any suggestions at this time". 

Libby soon begin charging tokens to borrow pens or paper during class. After school one day, she goes through students' desks and actually takes all of their pencils, only to rent them back for tokens. Lots of students are complaining at this point, but Libby just goes along as though everyone is happy.  

Right around this point, I found a note taped up in the boys' bathroom. I actually did make it a habit of frequenting the boys' bathroom, since most of my 5th grade students were not potty trained (and one was especially fond of pooping while lying on his side. Like when he was reading books or playing with little toys. I don't really miss that student much.). 

Anyway, here's the note (Claire was Libby's teaching assistant):

In case you can't make it out, its brilliant message says "Over throw Libby and Claire. Rioting is the answer, not poverty and taxes! Riot on Friday!! They can't prosecute us all!!!"

I can't get over how successful Libby's program was. 

And as a post script, if you were able to look closely, you would see that the little smudge near the words "and" & "riot" is really the beginning of a drawing of a knight on a dragon. I could totally see this kid spending time on his art, then, instead of using tokens to buy a fresh piece of paper from Libby, sacrificed his drawing for the rebellion cause.