Of Idioms, Crabs, and Grapes - Pt. 1

Every morning, as part of our routine, I introduce the class to the "Idiom of the Day." My white board is almost exactly five landscape-oriented sheets of paper high and so I have the idiom of the day along with the previous four days' idioms posted at all times. Amazingly, my 12, 13, and 14 year old students have bought into the same morning routine that I had my 5th graders do at Garfield.

"Good morning ladies and gentleman."

"Good morning, Mr. Evans."

"Today's Idiom of the Day is 'Put your John Hancock right here.'" (some snickers from a few of the less mature boys - but the rest of the class gets the idea because we've been studying the Revolutionary War and we just read a book about John Hancock the day before)

"THAT'S THE IDIOM OF THE DAY!" (the class shouts enthusiastically - for the first few weeks of the school year, only D. would say it, but now everyone does. I'm truly amazed that they do it.)

"As we know John Hancock is most famous for being the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence and he signed it larger than anyone else, right in the middle, so that King George III would be sure to see it. And that's where this idiom comes from. It means to put your signature on something. So when you give your reading log to your parents to sign tonight, instead of saying, 'Hey mom, sign this!' you could say--"

"PUT YOUR JOHN HANCOCK RIGHT HERE! THAT'S THE IDIOM OF THE DAY!"

"And when you go to buy a car and you have to sign the papers, the car dealer might say to you--"

"PUT YOUR JOHN HANCOCK RIGHT HERE! THAT'S THE IDIOM OF THE DAY!"

But then the usual flow and energy of the morning was stopped dead when L., who will never participate in class if you make him raise his hand but is always more than happy to shout out something at the least opportune times sans raised hand, says

"Nobody ever says that."

"What do you mean? People use that all the time."

"I've never heard anybody say that. Nobody ever uses idioms except in this class. That's how white people talk."

And so an hour long class discussion began and within 5 minutes the two years of indoctrination my students have received from our school about the importance of college, the necessity of going to college, our mantra of "college for certain," was revealed for what it still really is in the minds and hearts of a far too sizable chunk of my students: nothing more than a facade riddled with insecurities and doubts.

Excerpts:

"No one in my family has ever gone to college so it makes me think that I'm not going to go."

"Speaking academic English is acting white. We're not white."

"What kind of car did your family have when you were our age, Mr. Evans?"
"A Maxima."
"SEEEEEE?!?! You had a nice car. It's harder for us."

"Even if we get into college, how are we gonna pay for it?"

"I don't have papers. I can't go to college." (this is a myth, by the way)


See part 2 for my counterpunch the next day.