Whiteface, Texas, is a small community located in Cochran County. Its neighbor, Sundown, Texas, is located in Hockley County. These are both border communities. They lie at the intersection of ranching, oil production and cotton. I found in both communities a sincere commitment to teaching the small number of students who attend high school as Whiteface Antelopes or Sundown Roughnecks. In addition to the rough geographic borders of oil production, ranching and farming, the borders between adolescence and adulthood exist and are respected in both communities. When talking with students, I queried them to understand their participation in school events outside the normal classroom setting. I may have called them extracurricular activities. In both cases there was nearly unanimous acknowledgment that they were involved in something outside of the classroom and/or work. The border between the academic nature of the high school experience and life’s avocations in workplaces and communities was nearly eliminated. In addition, it appeared to me that teachers sensed the power of this bilateral engagement, and did not see their teaching commitment ending when the bell sounded. Rather, nurturing young people living on the border between adolescence and adulthood was front and center. In addition to the rough geographic borders of oil production, ranching and farming, the borders between adolescence and adulthood exist and are respected in both communities. When talking with students, I queried them to understand their participation in school events outside the normal classroom setting. I may have called them extracurricular activities. In both cases there was nearly unanimous acknowledgment that they were involved in something outside of the classroom and/or work. This commitment was expressed in different ways by different teachers at both schools, but the recognition that these students were living in “two worlds” simultaneously was apparent. Good teaching recognizes that transitions from one state of being to another are the core of teaching. If the teacher says, “My role is teaching calculus or history, and that’s where the teaching stops,” that’s instruction, a necessary aspect of teaching, but only one aspect. Teachers in Sundown and Whiteface seem to understand the “border existence” between one phase of life and another. Nothing creates better teaching than an understanding of the border condition. That border condition produces aspirational ethics. Those ethics and motivations provide determination for students to cross the border. To become something they are not. An aspiring architect or engineer or teacher inculcates an understanding of moving forward with the necessary skills and insights. Nurturing teachers do that.
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