Although I hate making kids stay quiet for AIMS, I am comfortable (perhaps too comfortable) with the silence. I like entering my own mental space. I like planning plot lines, imagining sketches and thinking of student project ideas. Don't get me wrong. I find the test to be exhausting. However, it's not the silence that's hard. It's having to keep the students at pin drop silence even after most of them have already finished. I also have to fight back the anger that I'm constantly feeling at this assessment method. Still, that silent mental space is something I love. It has me thinking that this isn't necessarily true of my students. Most of them are not comfortable entering their minds alone, in silence. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm wondering if it's an issue of age or a constant bombardment of technology or the fact that we are social creatures. I'm not even sure it's a bad thing. Which leads me to this thought: Why don't students enjoy being mentally alone? Is this something schools should be fostering? Are we not exposing kids to enough silence? Or is this silent wandering something that only some people need? I'm not even sure I can make sense out of this thought right now. It's not simply an issue of silence. It's an issue of solitude. Truly being alone. Being disconnected socially.
