The Sixth Grade

There was an article in the paper the other day, in a sort of advice-column format, that addressed the upcoming holiday that those who are in love, LOVE, and those who aren't in love, pretend to hate. Yes, the almighty Valentine's Day. In this particular article, "Wondering in Wilmington" asked if the signs her guy friend was sending indicated that he was indeed interested in pursuing more than just a friendship with her. Since marrying my husband two and a half years ago, I no longer look for these signs, yet with so many single friends, I hear about them frequently. Because of this, I was intrigued by the answer to "Wondering." The columnist responded with dogged determination that when it comes to pursuing women, men never mature beyond the sixth grade. The same signs that a boy liked you back then, the teasing, the shoulder-punching, the stealing-of-the-notebook... they mean the same thing now that they did once upon a time. Apparently, the only difference is that by the time these men reach their 20s and 30s, they think that all their experience since the sixth grade has made them better at it.

Aside from the fact that I am lucky enough to be married to a man who is among the minority (you know, those who matured beyond junior high), I must admit that this made me chuckle. I can't count the times that friends have come to me asking, "Did your husband do (insert aforementioned sign here) to you before you started dating to show that he was interested?" because they have been the unfortunate recipients of a salt-instead-of-sugar prank.

I have 135 sixth graders pour into my classroom each day, and it is interesting to see them interact with one another. However, if what the newspaper columnist said is true, my job is going to mean more than just making sure they understand the difference between predicate nominatives and direct objects. I need to be sure that they understand that the world gives them little credit for who they can become. It is easy to be part of the status quo, especially when the expectations are so low. And I'm not just talking about the ways that the boys treat the girls when they like them... I mean the way their minds function when they interact with others in general. My hope is that by the end of the year they will have learned more than just grammar and literature and vocabulary...

I hope they will have learned to be seventh graders.