One thing that characterizes the OC is the respectful way OC teachers talk with kids. When two former OC teachers who had moved and now teach in different schools viewed a videotape of one of them teaching, the other was struck with how, after many years apart from each other, they still talk to kids the same way. Respectful conversations happen in the OC and in other schools where many exceptional teachers reach out and make connections with students. An OC teacher recounted an event that illustrates the contrast with other ways of interaction: . . . When a junior high school counselor came to register the kids in my room for junior high the next year, there was not an available table where she could sit with a small group. So I said, “Just a minute, I'll get you a space.” I asked a few kids who were working together at a table if we could use it for a while and then they could have it back. We teased each other a little and then the kids packed up their supplies and moved to work on the floor. The counselor said, “Is that how you talk to kids usually?” I said yes. She told me that in her school adults didn't treat kids like that at all— “There's hardly anyone who would have fun with kids, or even ask them for the table.” I was so stunned, I asked her what she would have done in that situation. She said she would have told them to just “move out, I need the table.” So there would have been no conversation. I asked her if that was the way the whole school interacted with children, and she said there was one person who talked just like me, and it turned out to be a former OC co-oper who now teaches there. . . . If the classroom structure allows conversations, people can learn to converse with respect. Children themselves can play a role in helping adults communicate with them.
Knowledge Building and Knowledge Forum: Getting Started With Pedagogy and Technology
