Consistency.

when kids seem defiant to teachers, i don't really blame them. we grow up with hypocrisy everywhere. Is it like, an american thing to feel lied to constantly? what people say and do like almost never equate? nothing feels real. it kind of just seems like everything is about gaslighting. i'm just thinking a lot of things.

Anyways, let's talk about the inconsistencies and confusions of our lives.

As controversial as it sounds (and yes, I do own this fully), i credit much of my teaching personality to my TFA training. whatever you may believe, i will say this - it is one of the few teaching programs that addresses race and identity in the classroom. it's not to highlight how great tfa is, it just shows you how sad everything is. someone during training told me that consistency was key. i have never forgotten this, and it has helped me see how adults eat bs for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Level 1 - basic understanding of our teaching inconsistencies:

• how often is the word "assignment" and "work" used INTERCHANGEABLY?
• how often are the words "quiet" and "silent" used as if they are the same?
• how often do we mix up the words "team" and "group" and "partner"?
• no wonder kids are constantly confused. then they get in trouble for being bad listeners. i'd be an angry kid too (butlikejokesiwasactuallysuchanangrykid).

Ready for Level 2?

• how often do teachers say that they have a student centered learning environment and their daily slide deck is like, 14 slides?
• WE TELL KIDS TO BE MORE INDEPENDENT BUT THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SHARPEN A PENCIL WITHOUT PERMISSION.
• WE TELL KIDS TO BE MORE INDEPENDENT BUT THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO ASK FOR HELP FROM THEIR PEERS,  THEY HAVE TO GO TO The teacher/adult/authority figure.
• HOW OFTEN DO WE DEMAND SILENCE AND THEN TELL PEOPLE TO "USE THEIR VOICE" OR "SPEAK UP WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG" OR "RAISE YOUR HAND WHEN YOU NEED HELP?"
• how often do we say we engage in critical thinking when we're using the same articles everyone else is reading in the moment? is that really all it takes to build critical thinking - to reference the same trending articles everyone else is reading?

Level 3 - our actual lives with inconsistencies.

• we tell a kid to listen to their parents, but one of their parents cheated on the other. (this doesn't always happen, but think of how often we don't really give the disclaimer early on that we are all flawed people!)
• we tell kids segregation ended in 1956. i have polled my students asking if they believe segregation ended, and about 70% of the class will raise their hands. then I ask why our school's demographics are 99% Latinx. They look around the room. Some students look a little ruined after this. Oh no, segregation is real. (my god, no wonder school feels like BS.)
• we say slavery ended. 
• we tell people to speak up, fight for their rights, but then tell people to fight and protest "the right way"
• we say glass ceilings and race barriers are broken but we celebrate and reinforce tokenism.
• we say we should love family, but sometimes they are the most problematic. Just ask anyone who has a Chosen family (for those who don't know what a chosen family is, it's an LGBTQ+ thing). 
• we say education is the way out of poverty. but education has very predictably racially and economically disparate results. 
• the popular inconsistency: we say affirmative action shouldn't exist but we're totally fine with legacy kids. we say we're not fine with legacy kids but we don't question them verbally/publicly like we do with the racial minorities in college class.
• we say we want womens' rights but we can't seem to find the "right woman to run for president". people get real defensive about this bullet point. i'm telling you, i will probably not engage. 
• we say we want income inequality to be solved but somehow are totally fine with saying that teachers deserve a billion dollars. why does anyone need a billion dollars?
• we simply focus on the wrong people/issues. like, all the time. 
  • minimum wage won't bankrupt us, but those bonuses at the top will. 
  • we think poor people should work harder to get out of poverty but this woman is working 3 jobs!
• we say we want a better political system but always seem to vote for the white cis male candidate. "they have more experience, after all." 
  • watch how much people cherry-pick issues and candidates every election season. write it down. it is legitimately fascinating.
• we say we want diversity in the pipeline for jobs - so why is my friend interviewing twice instead of once like everyone else? why do we criticize someone's english ability? why do we say behind closed doors that they didn't go to the "right type of university"? why do we care so much about who they know?
• we say we have "racially diverse friends", but don't actually go into any in-depth conversations. race is how we want to see it - without the lifelong baggage it has. 
• we say we care about social justice but have been lowkey stuck in the "reading articles phase" and the "personal development phase" and not the "activism phase" and the "discomforting actions"  and the "it's time i talk to my parents phase". also i want to acknowledge that none of these are actually phases, they all are ongoing at the same time. for the sake of this particular argument, i'm just going to go with it.
• we tell people to be vulnerable and share stories with one another, but we don't call ourselves out. 
• we say not to judge, but we judge all the time...

my random one:

• a lot of articles about meghan markle say she mostly eats vegan, but she seems to eat chicken a lot of the time. can someone help me with this?

Let's go all malcolm gladwell on this for a second. if 10,000 hours makes someone an expert in anything then that means students/kid/young people are professional bs sniffers. they're expert people watchers. they're not just judging adults, they sometimes kind of already know who adults are (and sometimes, more than that adult knows about themselves). They know we're full of sh*t. we don't know it. and then we demand respect. what kind of a screwed up relationship is that? and then we judge people for being in screwed up relationships?

i never said i wasn't a part of these inconsistencies. life is weird, i'm an adult, i have a lot of complexes,  i'm complicated, and i'm full of HYPOCRISIES. i'm not exempt from all this. instead...

i'm just inviting you to think about what you say, what you think you believe, what you tell people, and what advice you give. Are these your actions? do you excuse yourself in anyway? how much do you actually align with yourself?

i know i'm thinking about it.