Observing passivity
“What do you like to do?”
I’m observing a Year 12 class; this student has been passive almost the whole time. Sure, she did something last spell when the previous teacher prodded her, but the pattern is back the next spell, and this teacher is trying to understand why.
“Sleep.”
“You can’t sleep all day every day, so what do you like to do when you have to be awake?”
“Tik Tok.”
“Creating or watching?”
“Watching.”
The conversation makes me uneasy. Not because I don’t think the teacher shouldn’t be asking these questions but because she’s not an outlier. Too many of our teenage kids have had the spark within them dimmed to the faintest of glimmers.
And yet, there must be a strong river of feeling and thought coursing within her. Why is she so fearful of letting it surface?