My power hat

So ... hats (amongst other things). I have a hard time with hats. Not students wearing them. Not the fact that they exist. Just that so many teachers are hung up on them.

The problem is really one of power. I am not going to deny that power exists or that it should even be used in the classroom (I'm going to go with Foucault on this one) but hats are not the particular hill I want to die on. Put into context, every student represents a whole bunch of hills. Some will let you die on a bunch of them without really impeding their learning but some will only give you one. That's it; all learning stops. You can watch those students withdraw or have them jump up and spit on you but the end result is the same.

I don't want to die on some foreign hill over a hat. I want my students to learn. I want to have good relationships with them. I like hats. Especially after bad haircuts.

How about we don't draw arbitrary lines in the classroom that will then become exemplary of the respect we (teachers) feel we deserve for having drawn such an artificial boundary in the linoleum. I use my first name too - exclusively! Piercings, dyes, loud clothing, loud ipods, laptops, social media and hats: none of these things bother me too much. It's supposed to be about learning after all. Are these things really impeding learning? No. I would be if they become the new guideposts that I need respected in order to allow a learning environment to form. That would be me not my students. Freedom to learn and freedom to express are powers that I want expressed in my classroom. Period.