They say that you teach the grade where you are adolescently stunted, and if you see me in the lunchroom, you will see my middle school anxiety at its peak. I want to only sit with my friends (let’s be real, I only have two friends, ha!) and if I get to the dining hall before them, I am panic-stricken at the thought of having to eat with the upper schoolers (and by that, I mean upper school teachers).
But as an adult, one of the things you have to start doing is suck it up and be social. So, I have started sitting wherever there is a seat, and the reward I have gotten for getting out of my comfort zone has proven worth it.
Today I sat with a physics teacher, and at our school physics is taught in the 11th grade. I told him that I had a friend at my last school who pushed hard to make physics the 9th-grade course that every freshman took, and push biology and chemistry to the following years. He got very animated and told me about the “Physics First” program that some schools use (apparently that is what it is called when you teach it in the freshman year).
Among all the interesting things I learned, the most interesting was his reasoning. He said structuring learning like that is the difference between “memorization” and “making meaning.” Students can learn about the Krebs Cycle in 9th grade biology (“The Krebs cycle occurs in the mitochondrial matrix and generates a pool of chemical energy (ATP, NADH, and FADH2) from the oxidation of pyruvate, the end product of glycolysis”; I just had to Google that by the way, but of course at the lunch table I just nodded my head in agreement), but they will just be memorizing it until they really learn what it means (and somehow physics has something to do with that, but at this point I was very interested in the mac and cheese on my plate).
What I found myself thinking about on my walk back to class was how much of my life is memorization and how much of it is making meaning, how much of it is me on autoplay and how much of it is new, difficult material or experiences?
I don’t know, and the truth is I am off to a dinner at my friend’s house so I have to get this blog in tonight in case I come home too late, but I do know that this will make me think of it more.
xo and happy eating
Stylish Teach 
I was cracking up at the part where you said but at that point you were only interested in the mac and cheese on your plate. And, the part where you just nodded along in agreement. I can relate to both of those moments in so many ways. 😉 Also, very creative title!
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What an interesting idea to think about. It sounds like sitting wherever there’s a free seat and striking up conversation with new people goes along with that idea of avoiding autoplay. I love the line where you quote what the Kreb’s cycle is –it’s such a great illustration of memorizing without understanding (at least to me, who doesn’t remember what all those words in the definition mean).
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I totally get your feelings of having to “suck it up” and get out of my comfort zone too! How you described yourself in the lunchroom is 100% relatable! Your question now has me thinking the same thing about myself…what is memorization vs. making meaning. Thanks for your thoughtful slice!
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I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Thank you for your clever wit.
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