Crushing Someone’s Dreams With A Single Letter

Reading Phaedrus blog about Ms. Bennett’s unfortunate experience does unfortunately happen today.  Whatever happened to remembering that kids need to develop their creativity and use their imagination.  I remember playing Ninja Turtles with my friends using my karate action on pretend Foot Soldiers and saving the day {No one judge me!!! lol *blush*}.  Of course I was in no immediate danger and I was using my imagination to help create the environment I found myself in.

It seems like the teacher who gave out this “D” to Ms. Bennett has very little creativity and imagination.  A house with personalities…that is way more interesting to read than some of the stuff that I had to read in English class.  For the record, if a house can have character, why can’t it have a personality too? Anywho, this reminds me a lot of what Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”  We find ourselves in a position to motivate and inspire our students.  On the darker side of the issue, we also have the power to create frustration and feelings of hopelessness.  The technological aspect in all of this may that some kids could use their knowledge of technology to write short stories that are more futuristic based and use a fantasy element.  An English teacher who may be close to retirement may see this as impossible and dismiss it without thinking of what time period this student is coming from and not their own.  We have to be careful about the feedback we provide students and keep in consideration our audience and who we are teaching to in today’s world.