Faculty Reflections: Beautiful Moments

Make It Stand Out.

As a teacher, there are beautiful moments when theories about education are made very, very real. I had a couple those moments last week:

One moment came when I heard one of my students reciting a poem while he was swinging. It was none other than "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson, which he had learned in 1st grade. I asked him why he was reciting it, and he said simply that the poem says how he feels when he swings. How could he not recite it? To him it seemed natural. 

The other moment came when another of my students returned to school after a death in her family. When I asked her how she was doing and whether there was any way I could help, this student responded, "I knew what I was supposed to do." At first, I wasn't sure what to make of this remark, and so I asked a couple follow-up questions. The student explained that she had cried when her grandfather had died—and that she had known what to do because Lancelot had cried at the death of King Arthur and Little John at the death of Robin Hood.   

It is heartening to think what we are giving our students, high and low, through the things we read. Stories are not mere fiction. They touch reality and their effect is tangible.