Not Light, but Fire by Matthew R. Kay

Author:Matthew R. Kay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE RISKY OUTLIER: THE POP-UP CONVERSATION

When establishing a purpose for a conversation, there is one outlier—the one-off, “pop-up” conversation. We have read an article, seen a movie, or watched a news report about a race issue and have decided that our students need to discuss it. This particular race issue has nothing to do with the conversational threads our students are currently following, but for whatever reason, we’ve decided that putting it in front of the kids right now is important. Perhaps we feel this urge after a Ferguson, a Baltimore, or a Charlottesville, or upon returning from any other long, hot summer. Perhaps an NFL player has decided to take a knee during the national anthem, and you are in a hurry to discuss it before the news media moves on.

This urge is often driven by one of the personal catalysts noted earlier—we like talking to the students, and we wish to help them process the news and vice versa. Conversations can also, when they involve pop culture, be driven by a teacher’s urge to seem cool. Many first-time teachers, myself included, have brought hip-hop into the classroom when all else failed to keep the students’ attention. During my first year at a struggling charter high school, I had so much trouble getting the students focused that I begged thirty old copies of The Source and SLAM magazines from my barbershop. My students and I discussed whatever kept them in their seats for twenty minutes; most of the topics, in retrospect, were explorations of black street culture. Was Meek Mill better than Jay-Z? Kobe or LeBron? Team Nike or Team Adidas? Maybe if I showed them Dave Chappelle’s satire or Chris Rock’s N-word bit, they would like me. Maybe if they liked me, they would eventually do some work.

The motives are understandable, but pop-up race conversations are dangerous. Chapter 3 argues that we should not be haphazard when discussing race, for haphazard conversations can careen into unsafe conversations. Chapter 3 mentions the unreliable “breakthroughs” (kids crying and other bursts of emotion) that are more evidence of teacher-inflicted trauma than the onset of understanding. We must patiently apply our professional planning talents as often as possible. There is never a rush. If we take our time, we might remember a useful tidbit about our students (e.g., Isn’t one of Emma’s parents a police officer? or Didn’t Mateen spend time in a refugee camp?). If we relax, we might be able to engage in a few thought experiments, asking ourselves questions like, “What if there’s a kid who is offended by my connecting the journey toward marriage equality with the Civil Rights movement? How would I handle it?” or “What if a student has a parent who blames immigration for the loss of a job?” Taking our time allows us to chew on these possibilities and shrink the possibility of complete surprise. We might even anticipate where we’ll be called to agility. Remember the young lady who didn’t know that the

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