Troublemakers, by Carla Shalaby

Out of any word in the English language, I think I am most intimidated by “power.” It is full of contradictions: Power provokes a sense of accomplishment while implying the achievement and maintenance of power requires competition, hierarchy, and domination. Power is given and taken easily, and it yields to external factors beyond its control. Some people fear power, others are generous with it, and still more meet their doom when pride becomes its companion. Power allows for advancement. It provides a sense of order and control, but it can also create and fuel chaos. Individuals, groups, small islands, and large nations all possess a certain degree of power. As a future educator, the environment of my classroom will depend entirely on how I and my students handle the power we are given in our teacher-student relationships. More importantly, my power as a potential change-maker in their lives— through traditional lessons, personal relationships, worldly guidance, and honest compassion— will stem from the bonds I form with students as a person connecting with people. For the past few weeks, I have read and discussed Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom From Young Children At School, by Carla Shalaby, with my peers in our Middle Grades Organization class here at St. Mike’s. Tracing the ups and downs, goods and not-so-goods of four elementary schoolers deemed “troublemakers” by their learning communities, Shalaby’s text asks the reader to consider best teaching practices and what schools can do better as places of learning and whole-student support. Through Shalaby’s case studies, I discovered a lot about the role power plays in the classroom. These students attend schools that seem to embrace both progressive and traditional teaching practices, yet their teachers’ ability to consistently reach them as people rather than “troublemakers” depends on their available resources, their success in developing promising plans for classroom management, and how they choose to implement their power.

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When thinking about my own future classroom, it is much easier for me to identify how and when I do not want to exercise my power as a teacher than to ponder how and when I do. That’s the tricky thing about authority: how I choose to embrace my power as an educator when it comes to my students will depend entirely on the relationships I forge with each one individually. Different students have different needs and respond to different teaching methods. With this understanding, the only way I know I would want to use my power as a teacher is by shaping my lessons and relationships with students so that they meet my students’ needs. However, I can think of plenty of ways I would not want to exercise my power, all of which are best summarized by four larger ideas:

1. I do not want to be the loudest, most correct, or only voice in the room. All voices in the classroom matter if the environment is truly conducive to learning and compassion.
2. I do not want to be the only teacher in the room. I want to learn from my students just as much as they learn from me, if not more.
3. I do not want to make every learning decision for my students. I want students, families, classroom support staff, and the wider community to contribute to the learning process.
4. I do not want to see students only as students subordinate to my role as a teacher. I want to educate young people and prepare them for their futures as global citizens.

Of course, there are numerous examples of situations in which my position as an authority figure will require hard decisions and a firmer grip on the classroom reins. But these circumstances will change with every new group of students and every passing day, so I can only commit to how I know I will not exercise my power as a teacher. I suppose of even greater importance than the four points above is this: Power will not be an intimidating word in my classroom. Instead, it will be the balance of love and learning that has an equal impact on both teacher and student.