September 5, 2024

From the desk of Phil Kassen, former science teacher…..

I remember the tie I was wearing and which shoes. I am not quite sure what time of day the class started, though in my mind’s eye, the sun is coming through the windows along Sixth Avenue. I can see the room clearly enough to know where I was standing as I waited to begin teaching on my first day at LREI, having been hired two days prior and having graduated from college just three months earlier. I was nervous, really nervous. My first class was sixth grade science (class of ‘92), and I was prepared with a lesson that a colleague helped me create just the day before. I thought I would start by asking the students to introduce themselves, then I would do the same, and then science would begin. After their introductions, I shared a wee bit about myself and asked if anyone had questions.

A student sitting towards the front of the room, Ruby, raised her hand. I called on her expecting a question about something I had said regarding who I was or what we would be doing that year, centering myself, my thoughts, not hers.  (Lesson 1 – Center the students.) Ruby asked, “If a man and a woman want to have a baby, can they choose what sex it will be?” I responded with a long and thorough answer and felt pretty good. “I can do this!”  “Any other questions before we move on?”, I asked. “Uh-oh.” “Yes, Ruby.” She asked, “I heard about a girl in Queens who has some disease and her school won’t let her in the building. What does she have?”

This was the fall of ‘85 and we were beginning to learn about a virus that would eventually be named HIV. This story was on the front page of every paper every day. Ruby had the Daily News with her and there it was on the front page. Indeed, a 7-year old was barred from her school due to fear that she would spread her illness. In the coming months and years, we would spend a lot of time discussing this. I shared with Ruby and her classmates what I knew, which at that time was not much more than they did.  We discussed how viruses are transmitted, how to keep yourself healthy, etc. I promised that we would continue to discuss this story as we learned more.

After school, I wandered into the classroom next to the science lab and asked the middle school math teacher – Rimmie Mosely, a truly talented teacher and a wonderful person – about my interaction with Ruby.  (Lesson 2 – After school conversations with colleagues = the best professional development.)  Rimmie asked me, “What do you think she was really asking?”  We talked for a long time about how to respond to questions, about whether students want an immediate answer, need an answer, or are best served by an answer. We talked about different types of questions and how you learn to differentiate between them. We talked about how and when to use questions as a learning tool as opposed to a teaching tool.

I think about those early moments quite often, remembering the feeling of newness and, more importantly, Rimmie’s push to keep the kids – how they learn, the importance of what children mean more than what they say – at the heart of my teaching and, most importantly their learning. Ruby wanted to know all sorts of things – she was scared about AIDS and wanted to talk, she wanted to know what she was allowed to ask me (she loved to push the boundaries), and she wanted to talk about sex. Over time, we responded to all these. But there was something deeper.  Ruby wanted to be reassured – Will I be okay?  Will the girl in Queens be okay? Can you help me learn to understand the world?  (Lesson 3– Yes, we have skills and content area knowledge we want to teach. Students will learn everything they need to, in a lasting way, if we make it meaningful. We can reassure you and send you out into the world with the tools you need to figure it out.)

As we begin this year at LREI, knowing that there are challenging conversations ahead, we are committed to keeping the students’ questions at the center of our work, especially as we strive to speak across difference. You will hear more from us regarding dialogue and civil discourse in the near future. To get to true dialogue, to truly listen to one another, we must embrace the question posed by the child who raises her hand and asks to learn to understand the world.

I have been reading Try To Love the Questions by Lara Hope Schwartz.  It begins with this poem:

-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

(Lesson 4 -The goal of asking questions is something other than finding the one right answer.)

I hope we can all learn to live the questions,