To Teach Is to Sometimes Not Know What to Say: The Meg - Pikachu Post

Middle School is the best.

In case you can't tell, I find a lot to love about what I do.  Sometimes what I love about teaching manifests itself in the craziest of ways - yesterday being a perfect example.

We have been working in Curation Lab on a unit on argument and persuasive writing for the past week.  Students had completed analysis of a bunch of different pieces and were now working on writing their own, with each person choosing his/her own topic.  There is a wild variety of topics waiting for me when we finish these up.  Typical of middle school, they range from the 'this is my life right now' type (limiting homework) to the deeply intellectual (security vs. personal freedom).  

Two students chose to write about the rights of LGBTQ people and/or youth.  Now keep in mind that middle school is always an intersection of the bizarre and the brilliant - one of the reasons I believe so strongly that it is the best place to be in education.  One minute you can actually have a student at break panting like a dog at your door or laughing uncontrollably because someone said 'fart', but then the next minute s/he is in class talking about social hierarchy or symbolism.  The dual nature of the middle school student is a wondrous thing. 

Meg was one of the students writing about the importance of equal rights for LGBTQ people in society.  She also asked if she could wear her Pikachu costume to class.  How do you say no to Pikachu?  What do you say when you see Pikachu/your impassioned and intelligent student writing away, researching, and even creating a bibliography to support her argument?

You just stop.  And you look.  And you realize there is nothing you can really say that captures how amazing it is to witness the intersection of the bizarre and the beautiful.  So I took a picture because, really, in this case, a picture says more about it than I ever could in words.  I can look at this photo and I can laugh, or I can look at it be moved to tears by the beauty of it.  

I showed the photo to about twenty people yesterday saying, "This is why I love what I do.  This is why middle school is like no other place."  Only one or two people really got what I was talking about, but it doesn't matter because I know how lucky I was to be there.