As we prepare for our reintegration to the United States this summer, I’ve been deeply immersed in a period of internal debate and reflection. It’s a heavy cognitive process and I’m usually not in control of much of it, which is probably why I’m always tired. The old hamster wheel in my head is never at rest, though on occasion I am fortunate enough to direct my attention to or away from it depending on the task at hand. I have always been at the mercy of my environment and its stimuli as I go about my days, as I imagine others who have little choice but to process their world sensorially are as well. My life’s inputs continue to reinforce or debunk principles that have long formed the basis of my understanding of human nature, namely that behavior defines character and environment shapes behavior.

Most of us use aids of some sort when it comes to making sense of our lot in life. I have often considered, as I imagine many others who tend to process the world like me often do, the relationship of such aides as either instruments or tools and am increasingly more careful to understand the implications of what aides we chose to surround ourselves with as they have a significant impact on cementing the memories of our time spent on this planet.

I currently make images with a rangefinder and it is my only instrument (until Hasselblad decides to sponsor someone with zero online presence and tends to visually wander a bit… but Hasselblad, if you’re listening…). Others may consider this unbearably slow, finicky, and inconvenient camera a tool but for the majority of people it’s an outdated, niche, frustrating way to try and capture aspects of life. It’s like trying to write a email with a fountain pen. The process of engaging with this instrument and what it asks from me when it’s held in my hands is, for me, the end goal. The images are a lovely byproduct. This camera is strongly opinionated and the best way I understand how to perform with such an instrument is to just follow its lead. It leads me to images and then just waits there. I am stare at the scene in front of me not quite understanding what the camera wants or sees. Why have you stopped here, at this time, on this day? I often don’t understand even after I have actuated the shutter and moved on. It’s only in that moving on that you realize you didn’t need or care about composing an email. It was just about the discipline and deliberation of writing with a fountain pen.

These days, I don’t look at most of the images I’ve made for at least a few weeks, often months have gone by. It’s only then that I can begin to understand the small melodies and leitmotifs that begin to make the movement. Reflecting on the past three years, I am beginning to hear and understand the concerto of my time here in Kenya. I’ve come to think of it as entitled Betwixt and Between and it examines the duality, or rather bifurcation of experience that I, and likely other Enlisted Family Members, engage with when posted to a young, developing country.

I don’t have a relationship with my tools, but I do have a relationship with my instrument. The best way that I can describe it to you is like this: my tools help me get jobs done. The product is the end result of a job. I use a tool to produce a product and then I enjoy/deliver (or not) what was produced. My instruments, on the other hand, help me experience and process the world around me that I increasingly understand less and less - likely a byproduct of getting older. The experience of performing and rehearsing with an instrument becomes my end result - the process. I use an instrument to navigate and understand life. The “product” I’ve produced is less tangible. It’s the questions I have asked along the way, the understanding I have gained or missed and resulting curiosities that have arisen. Those of you that have ever worked with me before know that I do my thinking out loud through discussion. The processing of my life is likewise a discussion, albeit with my instrument.

The privilege that I carry with me these days is that I do not have to make ends meet with my camera anymore. I get the indescribable gift of being able to not have to produce a product and thusly, I don’t need to use tools should they not inspire. I can choose just to play instruments. Anything that I do related to making images (outside of my education/nonprofit day job) is to help me understand and deconstruct our world and to preserve moments for my children to help them understand their lives and experiences so they may be able, one day, to articulate their own journeys of self-discovery with a few more nouns and adjectives at their disposal.

The masters of craft have transcended this dichotomy, I would imagine, and command whatever weapon of mass creation is in their hand to produce a symphony should they want. But these days, while I certainly miss working with clients, I am grateful for the privilege of experiencing the sublime joy of just making visual music with no real endgame. Maybe when I return to the US, I’ll visit some wonderful families and we can create some melodies together, me with my instruments, them with their perspectives on life. That would be lovely.

It’s great to have you here.

🇰🇪: Meet eight Maasai rangers – the first women in their families to get jobs – fighting poaching around Kenya’s Amboseli National Park.

📖: I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Anthropocene Reviewed and have now decided to assign a star rating to everything in my life. This newsletter: 2 stars - too infrequent.

🔉: Friend of the show, Heather, just started a podcast reading bedtime stories. Tabi’s Bedtime. It’s delightful. Have a listen. Extra bonus, her hubs provides the lovely soundtrack.

🏫: I was asked to design a school from the ground up. That’s what my “day job” is right now if you’re wondering. I’ll write up something on it later this year but I work for an organization called SHOFCO and they asked me to reinvent the way that we approach education and help to dismantle a few pieces of the colonialist/classist education that permeates here. It is hard but wonderful work. I’d love to share our journey with you.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goseek.substack.com

Hi Everyone!

This is a cross post from a recent article I wrote for the Mission Kenya newsletter here. I have no idea why you’d be interested in it.

When I learned that Nairobi was going to be our next post, I could not have been more excited. Kenya! Land of the world’s most elite runners! Heck, I’ll probably see Kipchoge every now and again when I go out for a jog. This is going to be spectacular.

That assumption, along with a whole host of other ideas I had about what running in Kenya would be like, has gratefully been challenged and I have grown to appreciate the nuances of this beautiful culture that we find ourselves among here. Have you been surprised by the “city life” and what outdoor exercise looks like in Gigiri? Not everyone is a runner here. In fact, there are surprisingly few runners that I encounter on my jogs (jog should probably be in quotes - shuffle is more accurate). Most of the elite Kenyan runners either train elsewhere in the world or in other parts of the country, but mark my words, I will run in the Rift Valley before I leave. Who’s in? What I didn’t expect was the solace I would find in what has become one of my most treasured places on the planet, Karura Forest. Not only is it one of the largest forests in the world that is completely contained within a city’s limits, it is also cloche of clean air and a welcome respite from running on the bricks and streets.

Quick Tip 1: find running shoes with dark soles - even if you’re running on the streets. That Kenyan clay, it always wins. Always. Don’t believe the Omo hype.

Your time in Kenya is surely enhanced by more time outdoors. While many of us initially seek out the mystique and pampering afforded us on safari as we can use our resident status to afford adventures that might otherwise be out of reach, I’d like to put in a plug for hyper-local exploration on foot in addition to your exotic adventures. Whenever our family visits a new place in the world, our first agenda item is almost always to head out on foot, usually a jog, to get rid of our “flight legs.” Running here in town, especially around the compounds and surrounding neighborhoods, can get a bit monotonous but with Nairobi having the threat/security five-star rating that it has, we’re best to stick to the surrounding roads (and, dear lord, hills) unless accompanied by a guide/coach. The pedestrian entrance to Karura is only about 1.5mi from both the Grove and Ridge. It’s perfect if you’re doing something on the longer side (or for your lunch/post work runs, it’s basically across the street from the embassy).

Quick Tip 2: If you’re a runner runner, you might consider looking into the Lewa Marathon and half-marathon. For those of you that have always wanted to run from with wildlife through a conservancy, there’s race for that.

Running here is really not much different than running at many of your other posts, or even at home. The biggest surprises for new arrivals tend to be the altitude, the safety precautions needed, and the lovely demeanor of the local drivers and bicyclists. Here are a few thoughts to get you up and running:

Ears and Eyes Open

You’ve likely already heard RSO & Co. talk about the security risks of Nairobi and beyond and informed you of a few of the no-go zones. Pay attention to those. In addition, it is unwise to run with your earbuds in here (even in transparency mode for those that have it). If you’re a podcast or audiobook listener or even a music listener, my recommended solution would be to look into a pair of Aftershox or similar technology. When not just enjoying the Nairobi soundscapes, I run with an old pair of them and it leaves my ears free and open to stay attentive to what’s going on around me. I was once almost seriously injured by a local on a bike whose brake cable had broken and he was out of control flying down a hill. Thankfully I heard the cars screeching and him yelling and was able to dive out of the way. Don’t be that American that just blasts whatever they’re listening to out of their phone speakers. Nobody wants to hear that. Remember, we’re guests here.

Map it Out

While at home I’d be content running without my phone, we should have ours with us when we run here. I use a nifty lightweight app called EasyRoute to map out my adventures on foot. It’s a breeze to use, built by an indie developer, and, if I choose, it will provide me with turn-by-turn alerts and directions on my watch or phone (it’ll even guide me back OR reroute me if I make a wrong turn). There are dozens of route making apps/services that work fine here, so if you’ve already got one you like and it works, just use that. I’ve included a few of the routes that I run regularly, but mapping your own is fun! I have loops for everything from a mile to 30mi+ through Karura. Get to know the area that you want to run before mapping it out. I always recommend that you drive your route before running it to make sure you are in high visibility neighborhoods and know how to find a major thoroughfare if you get turned around.

Sun Protection and Hydration

We’re a mile above sea level and that’s a mile closer to the sun. My entire family is much more prone to sunburns here (we’re pretty pasty) and on top of that I’ve decided to save money on shampoo by going bald. I always run with a hat and all my running tops are SPF rated. I don’t know what they’re rated but the label said they were rated. Those mineral sunscreen sticks that are shaped like deodorant are great for a quick face appliqué before running out the door. Along with the sun and altitude comes increased water intake. I hate carrying water with me but on longer jaunts I need to. As you have likely already discovered, the only recommended drinkable water is from our distillers or purchased bottles. You won’t find water bubblers along your route but if you run through Karura you can always stop or finish at River Café.

A Way Out

The safety precautions that I take aren’t much different than I would take at home in the States, but my awareness is much more heightened (see: running with headphones). I never run in an area that I couldn’t call an Uber from (Karura excepted) and I have Post One as a contact directly on my home screen. I’ve never used either, but I’m no spring chicken and someday I’m sure I’ll pull something or some part of my leg will come off and I’ll need a lift. Running with friends/enemies/pups can be a great way to keep it social and have a someone with you if you’re not quite ready to run on your own here.

Always Be Constructing

Since day one at our post someone somewhere has been building something. Always. It’s loud and usually rather poorly marked. Early on in our tour I completely ran through what was supposed to be a blocked off drainage installation project in Runda. I had no idea. Apparently, there was a cone or something somewhere (as I was told later) and I was curious as to why the road was suddenly all dirt and there was nobody around (apparently it was lunch?) but little ol’ nature-nerd me was too busy trying to identify which plants were indigenous and which were exotic to even notice until I heard someone yelling at me. Also, we need to mention the hills. Sorry. There isn’t much you can do about them. Nairobi comes from the Massai expression for “cool waters” but half the time on my runs it’s coming out of my lips as the curse word for “land of unfathomable undulations and lack of level ground.” At least the camber isn’t too crazy. This is Nairobi.

Head for the Light

Lastly, keep in mind that we’re on the equator. The sun rises and sets at essentially the same time the entire year, give or take 30min. Run during daylight hours. I know it can get a bit finicky with work schedules and getting kids ready for school, but you might have already noticed that the streets at night are not well illuminated and in our area of the city, it is pretty quiet after dark - there aren’t a lot of people out and about should you need assistance for any reason. Sun’s out run about.

We’re a great community here in Kenya and so many of us are excited to help others get adjusted and settled into our mission. If there’s any role that I can play in helping you live life outdoors, please let me know, whether it be helping you build/run a new route or sending you some recommendations. Kenya build yourself a habit of running or walking while at post? Kenya?! The community that puns together, runs together.

Pantingly yours,

Eric

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goseek.substack.com

Look what I found. It's my year in review! You know, the one that I have done every year starting way back in 2023. Actually this is not a year in review. This is just a few random musings because I wanted to say hello and I feel like I can't do that effectively if I'm not shoving a bunch of unedited verbosity down your pie hole.

Here's what's in here just in case you want to skip to a certain section. Or skip a certain section. Or just read the section headers and tell all your friends that you read it (you know, like I do with The NY Times, Edutopia, all the Apple press releases, and the emails I get from everyone except you. I would never do that with your emails because you are special and I value our friendship/marriage/collegial acquaintanceship/former relationship/restraining order.

Too Many Hats (a case for specialists) | The Germans Get It | ChatGPT in schools

Too Many Hats (a case for specialists)

Let's start with something education related, because, let's face it, everyone's got an opinion about education because everyone (except the entire House of Representatives, apparently) has received an education. From my anecdotal research, I have been able to confirm that everyone's opinion is correct and/or wrong. So congrats, you've figured out how to fix educating our next generation! If I could put in a quick request as a teacher, school lead, and adjunct professor - I'd love it if we might be able to wear a few less hats in the classroom. I get it, really I do, schools need to work within a budget (apparently schools have "had no money for that" since schools began back when we conquered the dinosaurs) but teachers are actually highly skilled knowledge workers, not generalists, and I'd put in a plug for letting teachers teach what they're supposed to teach. Here's my thinking by way of an example:

Earlier this academic year I was teaching a 6 week unit on body systems. I teach the Kenyan equivalent of 4th grade, so we're learning all sorts of cool stuff related to how our bodies work (if you're curious about my experiences as a male teaching SexEd, this link's for you). The unit was full of great inquiry, each child chose a different body system to research based on their curiosities, we had anatomical model assembly races, composed raps about the skeletal system, studied and created voiceovers, wrote stuff... it was fairly well integrated across disciplines if I do say so myself.

teachers are actually highly skilled knowledge workers, not generalists

One thing that you might want to know about the school that I teach in, is that there's no art teacher because "we have no money for that" so it's left to the classroom teachers to teach art, which approximately 0 of us are qualified to do. Since that's the case, we just all sort of do art; there is not much teaching involved on our parts. My first integrated art lesson was, I thought, kind of OK. We created a silhouette of one of the most important parts of the body system we were studying, then sifted through magazines (surprisingly hard to come by in Kenya) to find images related to that body system and created a collage. The next integrated lesson was drawing and... wulp... I don't have much to say about it except that if you run a school and you expect art to be part of your curriculum, for all that is good and holy please hire an art teacher. Make money available for that because that is actually your job. This is what students are capable of producing when you "do" art while teaching a body systems unit:

The Germans Get It

My goodness do I miss efficiency. I miss it so bad I feel like crying multiple times a week as I'm in mourning the hours lost just sitting here waiting for things to happen and/or people to show up when they said they would. You know, the whole integrity/keeping your word thing. The #waitingon identifier in my task list is embarrassingly long. The older I get the more I start to realize what does and doesn't matter in my life and, simply, I value my time and respect the time of others. That's Rule 1 for me. I don't have as many flexible hours in my day as I would like because teaching, though I am told that apparently I have the same number of hours per day that both Abraham Lincoln and Hellen Keller had, but I think we all know that the jury is still out on... science. What time I do have I want to use with intention and purpose even if that is intentionally creating space for my brain to wander and have a argument with itself. For all the struggles I go through being a dad and a husband, I treasure that "together time" and expect the boundaries that I put up around it to be respected (by both me and others).

I have found that here in Kenya there is a relationship with time that for those of us that make it a priority to respect other people and their lives/relationships outside of the ones that are immediately in front of us at that present moment, creates an unfathomable amount of friction. I'm the type of person who is on time. I'm the type of person who you can rely upon to keep his word. I'm on time because I value other people and their lives and responsibilities and know that I am just a small part of their bigger picture. That is not the cultural norm here and it is so incredibly difficult for me to cope with. It breaks my heart a bit because it makes me want to just continue working and participating in environments where people consider how their actions impact others. "Other people are relying on me to be on time, so I will make that a priority and get up a few minutes earlier." I wish for that every day here, sadly.

I'm the type of person who is on time. I'm the type of person who you can rely upon to keep his word. I'm on time because I value other people and their lives and responsibilities and know that I am just a small part of their bigger picture.

We had the glorious opportunity to travel to Germany over our winter break, though it's not really winter here so I'm not sure why we call it that - wait, maybe we don't call it that… and I never wanted to leave. You have stolen my heart, or, as the Germans say, AUSDCHWANGFHARTENZENTTLE. Say what you will about the Germans, but I was in heaven. A restaurant said it was going to open at 9a and it actually opened at 9a. Not 9ish (which here translates to around 10:15) but actually at the time that was posted. People drove safely and efficiently and worried about other people on the road, not just themselves. People knew how to queue which, for some reason here, confuses people to no end. Waiters took our order, let us know then and there if something wasn't available, and our food arrived as expected in a reasonable amount of time. There were a few auto accidents - drivers actually pulled over to the side of the road to exchange details. Novel. Systems were in place. Systems that were respected. It was just pure magic. I can't believe I am even writing this right now... these are the most mundane observations of what I had been used to when living in America, but I find them missing here and usurping the bandwidth that I'd rather be using for something more productive or helpful.

Also, just FYI Germany itself, as a monolith, which I recognize, it is very much not, is freaking awesome. The cities were a fascinating mix of historical preservation from ages ago, an acknowledgment of past atrocities, and a model of modern, sustainable living. We passed fields of solar panels and wind turbines. The Bavarian countryside was just stunning. All the people were like 2 feet taller than me. There was cultural diversity in their food!

Anyways, if I don't have my time to do with as I see fit, what do I have? New Year's resolution: use the phrase "you're wasting my time, and my time is not yours to waste" more. How to win friends and influence people. Nailed it.

ChatGPT in Schools

If you're following the education landscape at all, AI made a big splash this fall when ChatGPT was released and became available for all to use. If you don't know what that is, this isn't the place for me to explain it to you but in brief, it's basically an AI chatbot - you can ask it questions or make requests of it in writing and it will produce for you. It's insanely good at many things. If you haven't toyed around with it yet, I'd recommend it.

Multiple of my university students submitted their final papers by plugging the driving question into the AI wizard and turning in the results. Here's what AI hasn't seemed to figure out yet - how to build an author study based on selected children's picture book authors whose work spans a minimum of a decade and a half, utilizing at least 4 examples of their work as pillars for analysis.

I will say that the essays were fascinating to read and rather unfortunate to grade. Just out of my own morbid curiosity, I cut and pasted a few of these papers back into the AI robot that had written them and told it to grade itself according to the criteria that I had set forth in the rubric for the students. Ouch. It was even more harsh than I was marking up. It literally failed itself on every one of the essays that it wrote. Not quite sure how to square that one...

There are a lot of conversations around this technology in schools right now. It's so new, some districts are embracing it, others are banning it... I honestly haven't been with it long enough to have formulated a strong opinion yet, but I hear the "this is the same argument we had with calculators for math and cellphones/internet for history" side of things loud and clear as well as the "we need to know how to write, it is the fundamental skill for communication in our modern age" argument. Maybe I'm a bit of both. I love technology and I love embracing it. I also adore teaching writing and am mostly aghast at the quality of writing that is coming out of many students these days. At some point maybe I'll share a few snippets of writing that have been turned in to me at the university If you ever want to feel horrible about our future generations as written communicators, I have just the thing for you.

Long paragraphs short, this is a really interesting topic to be following right now - so much more than the Science of Reading dung war that is being flung around in the elementary school circles. Not that that debate isn't important, but it is so politicized and journalists are weighing in as experts... it's a mess. The pendulum is always somewhere, I guess, and right now it's really far to one side of the 'how do we teach someone to read' debate.

Note: This newsletter was entirely generated by ChatGPT. Or was it? (It wasn't) (maybe) (?)

It’s great to have you here.

🇰🇪: The disappointing state of aggressive tourism that is back following the pandemic. An important local cultural activist, Edwin Chiloba, is murdered, put in a metal box, and dumped by the side of the road.

📖: Here’s an interesting post on a teacher using ChatGPT to create a lesson plan…

📷:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goseek.substack.com

Like a Phoenix

Well hello there. You might remember me from such films as, You Used to be my Friend, Don’t Worry, my Wife Says I’m a Horrible Communicator, Too, and Wait, Who is This?. Well it’s me, eric, and like the friggin' phoenix you all know that I am deep inside my heart, here I am rising from the asses.

Well gosh, it sure has been a while. Why? Well that’s an excellent question. I have been asking myself the same question. Truthfully, without any BS, it's been tough adjusting to a mostly stay at home dad for the past 8 months. I didn’t really think it would be a huge issue for me but it turns out, in addition to forcing me to wrestle with my innermost demons (who, if you're curious, force me to do long form comedic improv - I just started sweating as I typed that), it asks from me to be good at all the things I innately suck at while letting what I always thought were my strengths grow a bit moldy and fester. Have you every wrestled with who you are and what you have to give for half a year? It's not fun, but things are looking up. I mean, here I am banging away at a "news"letter on a mechanical keyboard drinking some (quite literally) locally grown coffee like some kind of millennial hipster. If only I took more selfies.[1]

So here's the quick update. I have been doing some demo teaching and a bit of what has turned into education consulting (is that a thing? I feel like that’s a thing.)[2] and it’s been great. Being back around kids that are not my own, working with teachers and refining instructional systems, getting to be around kids that aren’t my own, helping other people with an incredibly difficult but rewarding craft, and remembering that I do, in fact, love children. That aren’t my own.

I was recently working with a group of teachers at a local school here in Kenya doing a PD on Project Based Learning and how that maps on to the International Baccalaureate PYP program. That means next to nothing to 97.4% of you that are reading this, but basically I was talking about using one idea/project to frame all the learning that is happening during a period of time. Essentially, we're giving context to what we're learning. (Why and we learning about angles in geometry? Because we're designing a tiny house for our local homeless shelter) I walked them through the launch process of a PBL that I ran when I was teaching 5th grade. Only much less successfully. It reiterates why working with kids is so amazing.[3]

To give you a bit of context, for this PBL launch I start by displaying a few images and invite students to notice things within them. This begins to engage their wonderings, which then leads to us eventually developing a "need to know" list for us to base our learning on. This PBL is about persuading local government to develop an emergency preparedness plan, where we learn how to persuade, how to calculate costs and make predictions, and how to communicate so well that they can't ignore you. The units of study are tectonic plate movement (science), persuasive writing and opinion pieces (literacy), multiplication of decimals (math), and community activism (social studies).

What do you notice?

5th graders

"destruction""water flooding into a city""a boat out of water. on a building?""buildings crumbled""roads ruined"

What do you notice?

Teachers

"I don't really like the font choice.""It seems like the pictures aren't spaced evenly.""It's the Japanese tsunami. I wonder which side of the road they drive on there. You know here, it took me no time to adjust to it. Actually a lot of people import their cars from Japan, so it's probably the same as here. Oh hey, have any of you eaten at the new sushi place down behind Village Market? I heard Omar's mom got sick there. But we should try it anyway because it seems like it's a place that would get good reviews. Hey let's do that for lunch. I can place the order (pulls out phone). Uber Eats says 35min. That's not bad. Bryan, what do you want?"

Me: My name's eric

T: I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Bryan.

Me: Oh. Right. That makes more sense.

T: Well do you want anything?

Me: Just to finish this PD

T: OK. Let's do orders first. You know with sushi...

Me: No, I don't think I do know with sushi...

T: You have to order it when you're thinking about it. Otherwise... you know?

Me: So just to recap, what we noticed was that you didn't like my fonts and that the slide design isn't great. So... our next step is to wonder and create a question to answer. Er... let's see... "How can you, as a teacher, the steward of our most precious assets and their learning, actually pay attention and learn something awesome?"

beat.

T: Well you could start by changing that font.

Stay tuned next week to find out what rolls I ordered and if, like Omar's mom, I found the sushi to be a bit lacking in the cleanliness standards department. Until then, make responsible font choices.

It’s great to have you here. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

🇰🇪: Mt. Kenya is on fire. It’s pretty rough.

✒️: SWBCA

📖: Firewater Blues (The Dublin Trilogy, Book 6) by Caimh McDonnell

📷: Roadside at the foot of Mt. Kenya

* After I cool it on the pizza consumption front

* Google just told me that it's a thing. And did you know that you can charge money for it?!

* I could have instead said "what makes working with adults so annoying", but I was being nice. Adults, get your s**t together.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goseek.substack.com

Every teacher knows it's coming. Every student knows it's coming. Every parent knows it's coming. The question on everyone's mind: who is dreading it more?

That's right team, it's time for FLE! Though (hilariously I might add) I have rebranded this experience as Fantastic Laurits Education, deep down in the darkest recesses of our brains, we all know what's about to happen. Family Life Education. (If you were born before, I don't know, two years ago? Three years ago? It was called SexEd.)

Here's a bit of context: FLE in the district where I taught was extremely scripted. Though I might have had visions of going all Dead Poet's Society and changing all these children's lives while learning about their prepubescent bodies ("Oh acne, my acne!") the reality was we were required to read from a script. What was not specified, however, was the accent we could don while delivering said script. My Christopher Walken could be teaching us about pubic hair and Matthew Maccahaney (boardering on offensive and insulting) walking us through the menstrual cycle. A thick Scottish brogue, "YE GOT TUH WE-ARE DEH-ODOR-INT SO YA DONNAH SMEEL TUH HAH HEAV'N".

Alas, these dreams of mine were never to bear fruit. I was well behaved. I read from the script in my normal, overly enthusiastic voice. Yes, I can sound enthusiastic about pretty much anything. Nocturnal emissions? No problem. Abstaining? Easy peasy. Circumscision? Hooray! And that takes us into today's trip down memory lane...

The third day of 4th grade FLE for boys has in it a section on curcumscicion. The main intent of the lesson is that everyone's penis looks different and it's all good, doesn't matter what decision the adults in your life made for you, you're normal and now let's move on and talk about what an erection is. Accompanying all these lessons is a portly (yes portly) designed PowerPoint presentation with annotated diagrams of the anatomy we are currently discussing. So, as the most intelligent of you can probably picture, this slide had upon it two penises, one curcumscised, one not.

Here's a good place to stop and describe for you what an FLE lesson feels like in person. I am standing in front of a classroom packed tight with all the 4th grade boys. All of them. There's a second teacher in the room, usually, and typically it's a woman, because let's be honest, not a lot of men in my profession. Already the 4th graders are totally weirded out that there's a female in the room as I am excitedly exclaiming, "Yeah! That's exactly how your testicles work! What a wonderful world!" So it's everyone. All the 4th grade boys. Everyone is sweating (great time for a deodorant lesson) because the heat is turned up to 95 because it's below 50 degrees outside in December in Virginia. I look and feel like I just ran a marathon through the rainforest on a particularly steamy afternoon.

FLE lessons go pretty smoothly, though I do pride myself on creating an atmosphere where everyone feels encouraged to ask questions when they come up - it's a safe, non judgemental space.

So imagine my surprise when I finished talking about circumscision and was about to advance the slide and a student blurts out, "I'm the one on the left," which was quickly followed by a chorus of other volunteered observations:

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one on the left, too."

"I think I'm the right one?"

"Mr. L. can you have both?"

Yes, I was caught off guard. No the students were not supposed to be comparing their penial structures with each other. Yes, I quickly moved on, as the flop sweat continued to pile up. But to the kid who is the one on the left? Nice work.

It’s great to have you here.

🇰🇪: What happens when animals find themselves on an island with no predators? Crescent Island happens.

🖋️: I am done with the Inclusive Classroom

📖: The Rise and Fall of the Matatu King

📷: Kids

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