Education – Page 2 – Elizabeth DeOrnellas

No, I’m not surprised. I am angry.

I have been trying all day not to write a rant.

I tried to channel my inner “Whoa. OK” Hillary shoulder shimmy. That just made me angry that Hillary has to make her well-earned exasperation cute in order to appear “likeable.”

I listened to Hillary quote Michelle and thought, “When they go low, we go high.” That seems like valid life advice – after all, if there’s one person whose steely grace I’d like to epitomize, it’s Michelle.

Then I listened to the debate.

I listened to a journalist clearly define sexual assault and a presidential candidate dismiss it as “locker room talk.”

I thought about what “locker room talk” means to me. I grew up with Title IX. For me, a locker room is where I learned from female teammates how to be strong. Where I learned what being a captain means. Where I learned the line between celebration and consolation is perilously thin.

Locker rooms were a safe place for me. The talk that happened there felt empowering.

That’s not the kind of “locker room talk” Trump meant.

Continue reading “No, I’m not surprised. I am angry.”

Advice

Tomorrow’s the first day of school – a new year, a new team, and new courses are all in store for me. In preparation, I’ve been thinking about one of the questions we used during our team building exercises: What advice do you wish you’d been given as teenager? Here’s my attempt at an answer:

I wish someone had told me that I’d always feel I have something to prove. That having a chip on your shoulder makes it even more important to seek balance. That sometimes the world throws you off-kilter, and that chip is the only effective counterweight.

I wish someone had told me that I’d never be comfortable being on top. That restlessness is both a blessing and a curse.

I wish I’d been told that life isn’t linear. That the danger of singular pursuit of goals is that your goals become singular. The higher you climb, the steeper the ground beneath you becomes – until you find yourself at a precipice, with only a binary choice: Jump or Back Down.

I wish someone had told me that it’s OK to retreat and lick your wounds. That sometimes that’s the only way to get clean.

I wish I’d been told that you don’t have to like yourself to love yourself. That it’s possible to acknowledge your own weaknesses, to recognize the ways in which you’ve engendered hurt – and still approach yourself with forgiveness and compassion.

Continue reading “Advice”

Teaching Vision

Working on a Teaching Vision for school – current draft is below – feedback is welcome!

I want my students to ask, “Why?”

I want them to understand that asking questions is more important than finding answers.

I want my students to learn that true empathy is difficult.

I want them to try to understand.

I want them to discover that understanding takes effort.

I want my students to be comfortable feeling uncomfortable.

Continue reading “Teaching Vision”

A People’s History

Finally finished reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States – I guess April’s not bad for a New Year’s Resolution. Read it if you haven’t; reread it if you have; it’s the kind of book that changes your perspective. Out of everything Zinn has to say, here’s the part that will stick with me:

But with all the controls of power and punishment, enticements and concessions, diversions and decoys, operating throughout the history of the country, the Establishment has been unable to keep itself secure from revolt. Every time it looked as if it had succeeded, the very people it thought seduced or subdued, stirred and rose. Blacks, cajoled by Supreme Court decisions and congressional statutes, rebelled. Women, wooed and ignored, romanticized and mistreated, rebelled. Indians, thought dead, reappeared, defiant. Young people, despite lures of career and comfort, defected. Working people, thought soothed by reforms, regulated by law, kept within bounds by their own unions, went on strike. Government intellectuals, pledged to secrecy, began giving away secrets. Priests turned from piety to protest.

To recall this is to remind people of what the Establishment would like them to forget – the enormous capacity of apparently helpless people to resist, of apparently contented people to demand change. To uncover such history is to find a powerful human impulse to assert one’s humanity. It is to hold out, even in times of deep pessimism, the possibility of surprise. (634)

What Fight the Power Means When You’re the Adult in the Room

Have you ever wanted to break something?

I have a recurring fantasy about smashing wine glasses. It doesn’t have anything to do with potential metaphorical implications – they’re just small, and thin, and, if you’re going to do it, the point is shattering.

Not sure why that particular vision has stuck around my head so long, I just know that if I was to ever direct a scene in which metaphorical catharsis turned literal, that’s what the heroine would be doing.

Of course, here’s the problem with that – in said scene, you eventually end up with a crunchy carpet of broken glass, and, if the theoretical heroine is anything like me, she’d then feel obligated to sweep up.

That’s my main issue with rebellion. I’m all in favor of window smashing and flamethrowing – except I know how much work it takes to get to the point where you own a window, and I’ve seen how long it takes the scars to heal when someone gets burned.

Continue reading “What Fight the Power Means When You’re the Adult in the Room”

What “Gender is a Social Construct” Means to Me

In honor of the International Day of the Girl:

What Gender is a Social Construct Means to Me

In pdf format, in case anyone feels like using this in a classroom (if you do, let me know! There’s a contact form at the bottom of this post). Speaking of comments: Don’t be a troll. If your ego and/or insecurity makes you incapable of discussing gender issues in a respectful manner, move along please.

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What Campus Safety Means to Me

In pdf format, in case anyone feels like using this in a classroom (if you do, let me know! There’s a contact form at the bottom of this post). Speaking of comments, I know this is a tough issue to talk about. If you are going to leave a comment on this post, don’t be a troll. I’m not interested in anyone’s misogynistic drivel. Don’t be that person. Wipe your mouth. Then say something worth saying.

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STUDENT MOTIVATION

One of my favorite English teachers (follow her @redforkhippie) used to motivate kids by telling them that she would drop the F-bomb in front of them, loudly, at graduation. The clear implication being that word doesn’t belong in class. (Unless it’s part of whatever you’re reading / viewing FOR LEGITIMATE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES – students, please stop with the fight videos. Go home and watch MMA. Don’t be that kid who pulls out their cell phone if a fight happens on campus. Don’t be the kid who obsessively views those videos. Do be the kid who pulls out a cell phone when witnessing police brutality. You have rights. Just be careful, please.) The F-bomb is especially inappropriate when directed in anger at a fellow student or at any other member of your school community. Accidents / frustrations happen. Apologize when they do. Unless you just tripped and hurt yourself – then we all get it.)