Joy on the Edges
Photo by Oksana Demenko on Unsplash
As I teach I try to do the work that I assign to the students, so I know what I am asking out of them. This piece is based off of the book Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett. As with most of Sir Pratchett’s books, it’s a commentary on society, but I was writing to remind myself that that working on the edges of a system is a needed skill set, and to show the students how you can take a story and find yourself in it. Literature opens doors for you to look beyond the story if you are so inclined. If you are a Pratchett fan, you will see characters in here that you love. If you aren’t, I hope that the essay still holds, crazy, irreverent characters and all. If you are intrigued, I’d love to read any of Pratchett’s books with you and talk about what he asks us think about.
I was the mother for 4 littles, had just finished my Master’s degree in education, and despite that had lost my teaching certificate because of some certification bureaucracy that I couldn’t change. There I stood, in Albertson’s, with all four kids trying to get through the aisle without Octopus Arms grabbing contraband, or the Nap Deprived losing their cool before we left the store. I didn’t feel much like a professional at that moment and wondered if I had been fooling myself about being a teacher anyway.
As we checked out the clerk looked at all four kids and asked if I wanted some balloons, because the store had too many. Lady, do you REALLY think I can get 4 kids, a cart of groceries and a bouquet of balloons across the parking lot? Do I look like Elastic Girl to you? But, to be polite, and because the kids heard the word “Balloon,” I took the silver mylar stash and fought the floating nuisances all the way home.
That night my husband raised a quizzical eyebrow at the balloons. I really didn’t want to defend my choices, but he said, “No, did you read what the balloons said?” No, I was just hitting them to the back of the mini-van, so I could see out my windshield. He pointed out that each balloon read “A+ Teacher,” “#1Teacher.” The universe had sent me balloons saying what the state had just denied, “I was a teacher.”
While I never quit teaching, I never went back for the certification. The rules changed all the time and the places I was teaching looked at my experience as validation, not a little piece of paper. But that didn’t get rid of the little voice that said, “You don’t really belong.” What it did do, was make me redefine what matters to me in my teaching, and what matters is that my students are valued as people.
Miss Rosie runs a guild that Pratchett euphemistically calls the “Seamstresses”. Rosie has rules to protect her women. The state has rules to protect teachers and students. It’s a flawed system, but it’s what we’ve got right now, just like the “Houses of Good Repute.” Enter Miss Battye. She actually darns socks and sews on buttons. There is no euphemism about her. She has the tools of her trade, some of which also come in handy for a revolution. I wonder how she feels hanging out with the other woman? She knows that she is doing the job she is skilled in, among professionals doing jobs they are skilled in. They have the same title, but they respect each other’s different skill sets with clothing. I greatly admire the creativity, the comradery, the courage of public school teachers. And I know that my skills rest in adjacent areas.
Sometimes I feel more like Vimes when he sees Nobby Nobs for the first time. Vimes asked Nobby about ”whizzing wipers, snitching tinklers, pulling wobblers, flogging tumblers, and running rumbles” (143). Nobby asks Vimes if he knows about “oil of angels, how to flegue a jade, or pulling wobblers” (144). I’m not up on the slang of students, but am I up for a discussion on a Nat 20 or rabbit breeding, because there is always so much to learn. Teaching isn’t just about the subjects at hand, it is about exchanging knowledge that matters in the world you share.
Vimes holds Nobby’s feet to the fire over a lie, and took that urchin, who smelled like a “spikey, slimy, slightly rotting seaweed” (145) and weighed practically nothing, to the “hot chair” eating place and filled him with all the Slumgullet Nobby could slurp up in 10 minutes. Nobby was there to spy on Vimes, and Vimes saw the person. Vimes started by feeding Nobby, because that was the first thing Nobby needed. Vimes gave him a job based on what Nobby was good at, then didn’t bat an eye when Nobby stole a spoon, because that wasn’t what the day was about. Teaching outside the system allows freedom to see people for who they are and let their skill sets shine in their learning. It often means meeting them amid undone homework, zoned out zooms, and silent stares. I don’t judge who they are. I do hold a hand to where they are, even if there are days I’d like to hold them up by the oversized lapels of a greasy coat and use my grizzled face to convince them to work for me.
Terry Pratchett often poked fun at the bureaucracy of systems as well, trying to get his readers to notice what mattered. He has a whole oath parodied:
‘I comma square bracket recruit’s name square bracket comma do solemnly swear by square bracket recruit’s deity of choice square bracket to uphold the Laws and Ordinances of the city of Ankh-Morpork comma serve the public trust comma and defend the subjects of His stroke Her bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket Majesty bracket name of reigning monarch bracket without fear comma favor comma or thought of personal safety semicolon to pursue evildoers and protect the innocent comma laying down my life if necessary in the cause of said duty comma so help me bracket aforesaid deity bracket full stop Gods Save the King stroke Queen bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket full stop’” (Pratchett 92).
As a reader you laugh at his flippancy of having administered this oath too many times. But he actually valued the essence of the oath, the little part that didn’t swear you to reigning monarchs who come and go, but which bound you to protect the people who were always there. The oath bound you to use the law in the protecting. Teaching is a fine art of conveying information, trying to get it to stick, and holding each student’s humanity as an individual while pulling them forward in growth. Because I don’t have to worry about state mandates, national testing, principals demanding high scores so the school doesn’t lose funding, I can “serve the public trust” so to speak. I can “defend the subjects” without fear of losing my job for underperforming students. I am not bound by a textbook I have to get through in a year, but can slow down and speed up as the class needs, changing my techniques without unending the school wide curriculum. Sometimes this feel like cheating, but most of the time, it feels like I am earning those balloons.
Pratchett is always trying to get his reader to think outside the box, to examine what we accept as normal and question it until the systems work for us not against us. Vimes kept his feet on the road, Tiffany tended to the edges, Granny Weatherwax moved small levers to unleash needed power. I work in a space that makes room for the unexpected, constantly adjusting and learning with the learners. Sometimes it is nice that the universe sent balloons.
#joyasresisance