Class Reflection #12

Time is like a burrito ...

Colleges, high schools, and kindergartens across the country are prepping their facilities for commencement season. Graduation season brings a mixed bag of emotions and motives. Depending on the context, some will be overwhelmed with relief and joy and there are some that are hit with sorrow and deep contemplation. In short, its a season of both busy excitement and numbing apprehension. 

To illustrate my classroom observations of late, I am turning to an old 80's film directed by Francis Ford Coppla. Peggy Sue Got Married is a movie about a middle aged woman, played by Kathleen Turner, who gets an opportunity to relive her high school years. When she returns with her middle aged insight, she perceives high school in a much more sophisticated way. 

She's curious, she has a desire to learn, she's impatient with incompetence, and she listens to her parents advice with a little more care and critique. 

The film itself isn't that memorable, but there are few themes and performances that are worth noting. As the plot unfolds, Peggy begins to rework her own life's trajectory, as well as surround herself with different social circles. As she attempts to uncover why she has traveled back in time, she reaches out to a character named Richard Norvik, played by Barry Miller.

He's a book worm that pursues the scientific field, somebody the "old" Peggy would have never associated with. In one of the scenes, Peggy Sue asks: "Is time travel possible?" 

That is when Richard responds with:

"I think time is like a burrito...In the sense that one part of itself will fold over...and it will just touch the other part. Whats Inside? You can fill it with whatever you want." 

Each school year, I hear students express an uncontrollable desire to start winter, spring, and summer breaks earlier and earlier. Recently, underclassmen express jealousy and admiration for high school seniors because they are finished with their high school careers in just a matter of days. While I understand the natural excitement of time off is true with any profession or life event, but students are omitting the joys and possibilities of right now. Granted there are some moments of the high school experience that not many of us would want to revisit, but as adults we know the years after high school aren't always grand either. 

To Conclude, For students and classrooms to become great, they need to experience learning, not just sit idle in anticipation. Sitting idle is something that can lead to habitual monotony and that is never good. In the final weeks of the school year, students can Read a favorite poem or line from a book, Rediscover an old success, Tackle a difficult recipe or math problem, Practice the enunciation of a foreign language, or talk to a classmate outside of the typical friends...In other words, Fill the Burrito with something tasteful !