First Day and the Learning Curve

 One of the first times we encounter Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's novel, he's rock-climbing. (The last time we see him he's dog-sledding.) The monster is scaling a nearly vertical rock face and the image is an apt metaphor for the teacher efforts right now to adapt to remote learning, a world-wide pandemic, civil rights action and resistance across the nation and a period of destruction and renewal writ large.

 

It's terribly moving to see how many students used quarantine as a time of reflection and introspection.  They shared items that had meaning to them today and everyone spoke, one by one, without my calling on them. Even a question that I may have meant to draw out more information or to satisfy my curiosity seemed an imposition.





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