I am a Pencil

" That caught me off guard, made me think. Maybe I was talking nonsense, yet somehow it felt true, that Su Jung's imagination took her to scary places, places she didn't want to go. But even if i was right, what can a teacher do with that? How do you teach a kid to bravely follow her imagination, even when its scary? And should you? I had no answers to these questions, but there wasn't time to sort things through. I had to teach my lesson" (Swope, 53).
This book was all about Sam Swope and this class going through an adventure together. Everybody learned and struggled with different things on a daily basis. Swope definitely had expressivist ideas and methods. Allowing the students to write about and come up with their own intriguing/compelling ideas. He constantly spoke about imagination and developing the students. HE always wanted them to go with what they wanted to write. SWope told the students that if they ever wanted to write about something other than the assignment then to go for it. Swope learned a lot about each individual child (most of whom had struggles in their home lives). Here Swope begins to get his first lesson in balancing the child's home and school life. Without a doubt a teacher is a very important part of a student's life. Besides their parents a teacher is the person a young child sees the most in a given week. Teachers become emotional support and a counselor. Students, even young students, do have pent up emotions as seen with Su Jung above. They are going through things and do not always tell you. Swope struggles above with what is best for the student. Do you push and force the student to face their difficulties that are frightening them in hopes that then you can help them? Or do you purposely not push? What is your role as a teacher and how are you supposed to know what your students need? These questions come up for every teacher. I personally think that you truly learn these thing through experiences and then deal with them on a situational basis. It is a hard thing to do and most likely never gets easier.