Katie, was one of my students, when I student taught at Point Park College’s Lab School. The demographics of this classroom included many of the faculty’s children and a large group of children who lived within a 10 mile radius of the college; which at the time was close to two predominately African-American neighborhoods. To say the least the classroom was eclectic, to brag a bit, it was very much a mini version of the city of Pittsburgh. Katie, came from a very affluent family, her grandmother being the Dean of Education at the time. Katie’s grandmother who had asked me to student teach, did explain to me two things; the first was do not be intimidated that one of the students is my granddaughter, and the second was, Katie can be quite stubborn. This was the early 70’s and at the time creativity, self awareness and it takes a village to raise a child were popular themes in education. I was excited, teaching was in my blood, and having had experiences working as a counselor for many years,I was ready! Oh yeah and I certainly could handle stubbornness.
Katie never liked it, when other students would criticize her for being selfish with some classroom toys or games, Katie was never satisfied if someone she wanted to play with did not want to play with her. AND Katie, felt she was the boss of things because her grandmother owned the college. My lead teacher’s philosophy was that whenever there was a disruption between students, it called for a discussion between students. To communicate was the calming factor. The TRUTH, my lead teacher would tell the students, is what matters is the truth, and the truth is something that can never change, no matter how much you don’t like it. My lead teacher lesson to me was that educators can be nothing if they first do NOT trying to find the truth regarding their students. Compromise is a wonderful word, she would say, but there is no compromise regarding what is truthful and what is fallacy. Katie had difficulty with the truth and after one semester of working with Katie, I discovered, that in Katie’s situation her fear of the truth was simple; it might diminish who she was in the real world so preferred living in her world. I also discovered having everyone focus on the same truth is hard.
Tuesday night, we once again witnessed the avoidance of truth, almost watching two parallel universes clashing. The one universe in which Mike Pence deliberately ignored any evidence of his and Trump’s bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, and racism. The other the audio, video of Trump/Pence telling the world we hate people of color/women/LGBT’s and Mexican “things”. I have certainly blogged about my disappointment within the Republican leadership to fully lambast the lies and fallacies of their candidates. I am at the point of my life regarding American politics that I wonder what will be deemed real and what will not. All of this made me think about Katie, and I worried, has she ever discovered that the truth matters, or has she matter of factly made up the truth?
