Skin color, melanin, and students' misconceptions about it all during a presentation on soil

Tough class today. It wasn't just that we got off-topic (which we did). It was that I felt like I was battling some real and serious misconceptions about life, the universe, and everything while I was working with the students. One of the students asked the question, "I was looking up some stuff online and it said that the reason black people's skin is dark is that we have dirt in our veins. I didn't believe it ... but is it true?" (The assumption here was that having dirt in your veins made you dirty and somehow bad.)

So, instead of working on soil temperature and soil moisture (which we did eventually get to), we talked about melanin and skin tone. And after I explained that pigmentation had more to do with the amount of melanin in our skin rather than anything else, we talked about how different skin tones do not categorize people into "better" or "worse" groups and that darker skin does not indicate in any way that someone is worse than someone with lighter skin (and we did discuss that in fact the more melanin someone has in their skin, the less susceptible she or he is to skin cancer). It was such a delicate conversation to have with a bunch of ninth graders but oh wow did it feel important.

I love the work I get to do. Tomorrow, I go back and we finish up soil moisture and soil temperature, but honestly, I feel that this conversation was the most important work I did with them all day.

Teachers Who Inspired Me

I have been inspired! Here is the list of all my amazing teachers who taught, inspired, and most of all cared.

Mrs. Molodovsky: (first grade). She saw an immigrant child who spoke no English and had pretty much nothing. She spent time with me outside of school. She took me to the zoo and while there, she learned about my love for big cats (what fun to try and get that concept across when I spoke almost no English). She bought me a tiny little plate with a tiger on it. I had that plate for decades until one of my own cats knocked it down and broke it.

Mrs. Sapperstein: (Third grade). She helped me learn how to read English. Since there was no ESL program in my school, I was thrown into the regular class to sink or swim (plus when they found out I was good in math, they had me skip second grade when a lot of that reading learning might have occurred). I learned English from watching tv, but reading was another story. The first language I learned to read had been Hebrew (different alphabet and you read from right to left) so English was completely bizarre. She stayed after school to help me learn.

Mrs. Hudson/Gutman: (Sixth grade English). Oh Mrs. Hudson how amazing you were. She didn't teach me *how* to read. She taught me to love to read. She realized I hated reading (it was all those stand-up-in-front-of-the-class-and-do-book-reports moments that had me *hating* it) and she recommended that I get out two books: "Black and Blue Magic" and "Down a Dark Hall." I discovered worlds and possibilities I had never known existed. After that, I became voracious. Every day right at the end of school, I would go to her room and she would recommend two books. I would run to the library and check them out and would read them that evening. The next day, we repeated the cycle. This went on for all of Middle School.

Mr. Bloomhuff (Ninth grade biology). He came in the first day and said, "This is a college preparatory class. If you are not planning to go to college, you should leave, now. Be prepared to study at least a half an hour every, single day for just this class." And we did. He tested us. He quizzed us. He worked us hard. And he made it cool to try and to do well on his tests.

Mrs. Citron (Ninth grade Landmarks in Literature) She came in to the first day of ninth grade English, drew a diagonal boot on the blackboard and asked, "what is this?" We all sat silently, too afraid to guess. Alex Glatter was the one who replied, "That's Italy." "Correct," she cried. "You have to know what you know and know what you don't know but never be afraid to guess. If you guess wrong, you can figure out what's right. If you never guess, if you never think, you will never know."

Mr. Graham (10th Grade Chemistry and 12 Grade Physics). Mr. Graham had such enthusiasm for his topics that you couldn't help but be inspired. He sparked scientific curiosity in me and that has led me on a merry chase throughout my career and life.

Mr. Waldman (Advanced Math) Give him a bon! Mr. Wald-Man taught me how to think and he taught me how to make classes fun. He was as dramatic as he was eccentric and many of us can still tell you all about MPI and DPI danger (the multiplication principle of inequality and the division principle of inequality) because we remember him turning out the lights, and jumping on his desk to rant on the dangers of each of them. I teach dramatically as well and it is in no small part do to him.

Ms. Powell (High School choirs). MAP, as we all called her taught me everything I know about singing and performing. And I have passed her wisdom on to countless students ranging from three-year-olds to corporation presidents who take my workshops or classes. The debt I owe her could never be repaid. She changed my life.

If you've read this far, who inspired you? Who are the teachers who helped you become the person you are today or the one you aspire to be tomorrow?

Learning and Curiosity, where did it go and how do we get it back?

Today, I learned a valuable lesson. I presented at a local high school with a math class. We were working on the Pythagorean Theorem and why it is important to be able to use it. I used the approach of satellite imagery and how satellite image pixels of land cover can be ground truth-ed by the students (and why ground truthing important to begin with). So, we studied GPS, compass use (Lat/Lon), and how to find the distance from the center of a square to the corner of it if you know the length of the square's sides.

As part of the presentation, and using the instruments we had just learned about, I asked the students to build a mini-satellite pixel in the classroom (before we go out into the field and do it for real on Thursday). No one wanted to volunteer. And it wasn't because they were not engaged or interested. They were interested, but I saw that they have a major challenge in that if they don't know exactly how to do something, they are too scared to try it and perhaps fail. I watched it in their eyes. For some reason, these kids have had the desire to strive to new heights even if they risk falling on their butts, beaten out of them. They seemed to fear censure from their teachers, the other students, or society at large, and they were all too afraid to start.

But then, I asked them to do a part that they recognized (using the compass to find a cardinal direction, which we had just covered and they had gotten it very well) and a bunch of them volunteered. Honestly, I don't know if there is causality here, but I saw the light in their eyes when they felt like they could do the task at hand and a fair number of students got up and tried it. They were excited to try, but only if they had an idea of how to do it, if they understood the whys and wherefores, and if they had had a chance to practice it a couple of times beforehand.

Once we had covered the concepts and they were able to apply putting the "mouse" in the "house," of the compass, they got it and kept trying to find different directions on their own. The energy in the room was palpable. They worked together, they helped each other, and they wanted to strive for more. But the second we got into unfamiliar territory, I found them much more willing to blow off the activity and start denigrating it, themselves, and each other. That happened over and over again until we worked together to make it more familiar to them and kept stressing the concepts behind what they were doing. Once again, they were focused, the only talking occurred because they were discussing what to do and how to do it and the reasons why they needed to do it in the first place. Then, things went smoothly and they all had fun.

It leads me to believe that the concepts behind what we are asking these kids to learn need to be stressed much more than teachers currently have time to do. If the kids learn the concepts (in a fun way and I can't stress how important it is that it be fun), and then apply those concepts and really get a chance to practice different scenarios behind those concepts, they can extrapolate and progress to new heights. But if they only learn how to do the one thing they are taught, then the second they are in unfamiliar territory, they will retreat either into a shell of quiet, or a defensive posture of talking, yelling, and otherwise being disengaged. (I will leave the discussion on what it means to spend more time on concepts for another post, but believe me when I say that the students are learning more, and more varied, science, math, and language arts this way than if they are just learning for the test. They are learning more and then can recall, reiterate, and apply it better. This, I promise you.)

Please don't get me wrong. I am not in any way denigrating teachers or how hard they work. I have the utmost respect for how much time and energy teachers put into what they do. I don't believe it is the teachers' fault. I believe the system makes it very hard for teachers to have time to fit everything in, and I think that needs to change in order for our kids to have a better chance to find that curiosity that will lead them to push boundaries and reach for the stars.

I am blessed in that I am always a guest at these schools. I don't have to do all of the myriad things teachers have to fit into their days/class periods. It's incredible how much they have to do and I am grateful that I can come in, do my presentations, and help the teachers implement various projects and activities.

They have the tough job. Me, I'm like an aunt. I swoop in (to the classroom). I rile 'em up on sugar (or concepts, or fun activities), and then I leave and the teachers work with their students to continue what we started. I hope that the education system makes more room for what I do. I think we need more time spent on fun in the classroom (Yes, Timmy. Science and math are fun and let's work together so we can see just how fun they can be!!). I think students need to approach concepts from different perspectives and see where those perspectives lead. (If they get the chance to do that, they can then apply what they have learned to other situations and that will give them knowledge they can take into the rest of their lives.) I think we need more time spent on inquiry (Let's let the students become curious. Once they are curious, the sky's the limit!). And I truly believe that if we keep moving away from teaching to the test, students will know more, learn better, and excel. They will succeed beyond our (and their) wildest dreams.