Two views, same event.

My first experience as an adult in viewing into the 7^th grade mind was a couple of weeks into the school year. This was my 3^rd year teaching, but first time having students younger than 9^th grade. I turned around from writing something on the board, yes we still used chalk at that time, and I noticed a boy in the back row. He had his spiral notebook held vertically up in the air so that he was peering through the spiral rings with one eye like a telescope. He was scanning the front of the room from right to left when his view fell directly upon me. Noticing that I was looking at him, he immediately slammed the spiral down to the table looking away from me pretending that I did not see him doing that. I smiled as I thought, “So this is the 7^th grade mind.” This is actually not the event that I want to discuss here. I use it to give you a preview to my thinking about the next one.

I had a group of 8^th grade students staying for extra help after school to prepare for a test. Actually, they were all girls. I was wondering why they were all girls. One reason was because they were friends, so once one of them decided to stay, the others decided they could as well. Still, it does not explain why there were not any boys there. More than just a couple of boys could have done better on the test if they had come for the review session, so the reason was not because they didn’t need the help. I do not even feel that it was a matter of motivation as this was an honors class and all of these students performed up to high expectations for the class.

As I tried to logic this out to determine the reason, it occurred to me that perhaps it was about logic. The topic was geometry proofs, so the challenge for these 8^th graders was to apply logic in showing that a statement about a picture was true. While working with them, I came to understand that logic was a choice for these girls, so perhaps this is true for most of us. They did not have weak logic or an inability to be logical, but preferred to apply other types of thinking first before they engaged in logic. This played out in the haphazard conversations surrounding the work on the proofs. These students ended up being very happy with their test results the next day.

When do we choose to not apply logic to a situation? When our emotions take over or we feel the need to be creative rather than logical. At least those are a couple of thoughts I had on this. Are you wondering why I am about to wish you a Happy Friday? Maybe because you just had 4 days of the week that are not Friday. Maybe because it helps you start a weekend in a happy way. You know what? Those have you looking back or looking ahead. Let’s stick with today.

Just have a Happy Friday because, well, it is Friday. When those logical moments come, engage them, especially on a Happy Friday. Remember to subscribe on the Perspectives page.

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