A new set of eyes

Yes, school is actually going to end. In the words of Beth (tracking her quads), "Thank you Jesus." As I was packing up my classroom this afternoon, our amazing custodian, Byron, gave me his impressions of the 8th grade dinner dance from last night. His take on growing older and watching a new generation of youth is that every generation has a new set of eyes watching them. So with our new eyes, we see how different that generation is from our own. Now that I have been an urban teacher for 9 years, my eyes (or at least my eyesight) is very different from what it was when I was in middle school. I wish I could peek back at my own middle school graduation with my better developed eyes. Oh well. At least I have my students to teach me a thing or two.

One highlight from 8th grade graduation this evening (and a stark contrast to my own back in the 80s in the Chicago suburbs) was the clothing choice.

This is a student of mine from last year. His custom, airblown, white suit jacket is complete with his portrait, including glitter to represent diamonds on his cheeks and teeth. Giddily, he busted out his cell phone to show me the photo of himself which the artist had used when creating this unique work of art.

On a somewhat related topic, an African-American student of mine gave me a lengthy explanation the other day about how he got his tight wave of tiny curls in his hair. It was told to me in that tone which adolescents use when they think you're really stupid. But despite his tone, he spent 10 minutes of his lunch break explaining this to me and I think he left proud that he could help a style-ignorant, white woman out.



These waves are made using a doo-rag, which is a type of hair net which has a pattern inside that creates the wave. You sleep in it for several months (and you'd wear it all day if strict Ms. Krasnow didn't make you take it off) and which results in this amazing wave. It's very subtle. I'd always assumed it was the result of a hair cut, not the patient use of a scarf. Tonight at graduation I noticed how many students had this wave and again felt ignorant for having never noticed it much before. The doo-rag looks a lot like this, with a scarf inside with the wave pattern . I find this amusing as us cyclists are such simpletons and use these things only to catch sweat.




So, as the class of 2008 heads off to high school, this teacher keeps her seat at the middle school table, eager for summer, but anticipating a new set of style lessons to be learned next fall. As Byron explain to me today while emptying the recycling, we're the same people, we just grow a new set of eyes every couple of years. I'll be sure to open mine wide.