A True Story
Three Students and an Ant
Seniors in High School
Picture this.
World History Class. High School. Last Day. Seniors — 20 in class. Final exams on each desk. Three Senior boys enter 10 minutes late, basketballs in hand. Respectfully, they sit to take their exams.
10 minutes pass- all quiet. Then, one of the boys starts throwing paper across the room. All laugh, Teacher replies- “Come on, stop messing around.” All laugh. Teacher smiles.
The second of the three boys bounces a basketball on the thrown paper. He comments, “That’ll get’em”. Sits and works on exams. The teacher walks over and picks up the paper.
An ant falls to the ground.
Another student replies “Watch me slowly stretch it.” He proceeds to pick up the ant. The teacher, horrified, silently intervenes- hand outstretched. The student places the ant in her hand.
The third boy smiles and opens the window for the teacher.
The Teacher Stops the Class. Collects Exams.
New Topic in Teachable Moment: The World, its people of Oppression and Compliance, Followers, and Leaders-
The format is a round table discussion with desks- 20 students -eager to leave high school, about to enter into a much larger society.
Nothing taught this entire year about our World History could ever have had such a great impact as THE ANT, its impact, and discussion with these teens.
Our future adults.
The World, its people of Oppression and Compliance, Followers, and Leaders-
Its representation of our world on this last day of their senior year left the class with not one dry eye among 20 teens. The bell rang- they stayed.
They cried. They learned.
Tears still flow as I write this piece.
They surely got the message.
. If you choose to you may — Buy me a coffee?
