Robby Prenkert

This article!

AMBS and their ilk in the fringe wing of (North American) “post”-Mennonite churches once again display their cluelessness.

Meanwhile, my neighbor’s children (horse and buggy Mennonites—real Mennonites) rode past on their bicycles this morning on their way to school, stoic as they battled those 40 mph wind gusts. Surely they remain gleefully ignorant of these social media discussions; and for me, the beauty of their diversified, small-scale farm, and the joy they seem to have in caring for it and playing on it is a witness more powerful than almost any sermon I’ve heard. Their faithfulness and fidelity both inspire and put me to shame.

You try, and most things do not work—most especially those things suggested by the teacher’s manual, when you follow the “curriculum map.”

You have modest success trying to teach them basic vocabulary, reading aloud, and working with them through a worksheet of ILearn-type questions. They cannot be trusted for long stretches with their Chromebooks.

When they do not complete your carefully designed, scaffolded writing assignments, you make deals with them to get them to write something, anything, remotely related to the assignment, however late, so you don’t have to feel like a failure when so many of them have failing grades using traditional measures.

Still, too many of them turn in almost nothing, are defiant when you offer them the chance to catch up, or redirect them when they are off task (repeatedly) in class.

It’s discouraging work if you dwell on all that, as opposed to the little miracles that do happen almost daily, that surprise and delight you.

You are beginning to understand what it means to “be joyful, though you have considered the facts.”

1. It should be illegal to own a smart phone until you are 16 years old. You should have to have a license to own one.

2. As a middle school teacher, stuck with a horribly boring ELA curriculum that effectively requires students to use Chromebooks in order for it to function, it is my firm belief that we should return to almost completely analog classrooms if we want to educate our children. Paperback books, pencils, and paper. You don’t need anything else 99% the time.

We are both middle school English teachers.

Wife’s middle school: 650 students, 1 assistant principal, 1 resource officer, 0 security guards, and students are allowed to use the bathroom during passing periods.

My middle school: 400 students, 3 assistant principals, 1 resource officer, 7 full-time security guards, no bathroom use during passing periods.

Also, in one of our classes a student was caught vaping. During class. Guess whose?

Any guess whose school has the better ILearn scores?

Today one of my students asked me if I was rich. I told him I am not. And then elaborated, saying by comparison to the vast majority of people in Haiti, for example, I am extravagantly rich. But by American standards I am very middle of the road. He asked if I lived in a mansion. I asked him if he would enjoy seeing a video of my house and property sometime. I might make one.

But I wonder in these two weeks with him what might have made him think to ask such a questions.