I had a real teacher moment today

Today I had one of my two high school classes, wherein we read The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien is an author that is near and dear to my heart because he was a medievalist like I aspire to be and I love finding those connections to medieval literature in his works. Last week, this particular section didn't go so well; my kids were really resistant to reading and didn't think it was relevant to their lives, etc., etc.... basic high school excuses.

All week long, I've been thinking about this class and agonizing over it. Part of me wanted to come in defensive today, ready to defend my beloved author and familiar world of Middle Earth; the other, more practical, part of me knew that that was the best way to drive these kids away. I decided that the best option was to go in with an open mind and let them surprise me. And boy did they ever surprise me.

At first, they were reticent to speak, no matter how much I simplified the questions. Then one girl raised her hand and said "Can I be real honest here?"

"Yes," I replied, "as long as you can be nice about it."

"I don't know who nobody [sic] in this danged book is! I read and could probably answer your questions, but I don't know who you're asking about!"

The lightbulb went on in my own head.

"Oh! Is anyone else having the same trouble as A-----?" I asked.

A chorus of "yes!" rose from my students.

So I adjusted. We made a chart on the board with the various characters and who they were and then I sat on the edge of my desk, just like my dear teacher Dr. J did and talked with them. We had a very adult-level conversation about the ethics of Bilbo not killing Gollum when Bilbo got the Ring, as well as Frodo's choice to take on the burden. We talked about why Gandalf could not take the Ring himself, because of the corrupting influence of the dark power and how fraught with peril Frodo's journey would be. It was a truly excellent conversation and I was proud of them because just about every kid got really vocally involved.

After this, we took a break for the bathroom and as I was following my students back to our room, I hung back because a couple of my students (girls with whom I had had some attitude problems last week) were eating. They saw me and promised that they were "almost done," and I told them that when I was in high school, I used to bring food in my purse and sneak eating all the time. They look shocked, so I continued, telling them that I had texted in class before and had conversations behind the teacher's back... that's how I knew that they were doing that behind mine. One of them high-fived me and said she thought I would have been one of those "goody goody little perfect students" and she was shocked. Her shock came, I think, at finding that I was not as superhuman as they thought. After that conversation, though, I had no more trouble with them; it was as if they needed me to come down to their level, just a little, which I did, and we got a lot accomplished when we were on the same page.

This, my friends, is why I do what I do. Even though they frustrate me sometimes (or a lot), I truly do care for every one of my students, from the toughest to the sweetest, and small breakthroughs like this are what let me know that I'm doing my job effectively. And that's worth more than anything.