Guess My Favorite!

This is how it is..everyday with out coaxing.

Can you guess which class is my favorite?

It may surprise you...or maybe not.

Of course I tell them all that they are my favorite--and they are--all for different reasons. But I think it is pretty obvious who thinks that they are my favorite. And it make me wonder...when did we decide that order, and along with it STEM and probably the sequential thinker/learner, was better? Is it?

Ok, before you label me one of "those disorganized creative types--let me remind you that my main class discipline is High School Math. While I am at it, I may as well confess that when I started in teaching I thought that putting desks in rows and seating students alphabetically would work--let alone was a good idea. Somewhere along the way, reaching the students became more important than having everything "just so". Thank goodness!

So about that class. Interesting enough, I like that group, but they are not the ones who challenge me to be a better teacher. They don't argue, but they don't discuss either. Their grades are higher, but I get the distinct impression that this has nothing to do with me. That class just happens to be a group of academically oriented--and obviously Type A--students. That class is the one that makes my co-workers envious.

But are they my favorites? Well, they are all my favorites in different ways, for different reasons. Mostly because they all have their own unique special quirks that make my world wonderful. Yet that class is pretty proud of their order, and the other's struggle to equate value to themselves in the light of their lacking math skills.

I am wondering, how can we educate students in a way that will build on their best attributes, while challenging them to stretch and learn? Must we all be of the same mold with the same destiny?