When I ask students at summer school what topic they want, I present three choices.  The class overwhelmingly chooses "financial planning," which, for me, is a fun unit to teach.  When I ask a student why he chose financial planning over the Holocaust, he explains bluntly, "I already knew about the Holocaust.  We do it every year.  What am I supposed to do with it? Not throw Jews into gas chambers?  I wasn't planning to do that in the first place.  Hopefully I can use this."

We start with the philosophy of money and students get into it, as we assess the pros and cons of each function of money.  After doing case studies, an interactive activity, group work and a writing assignment, we connect again and discuss which function of money leads to the most happiness: spending, saving, investing, borrowing and giving away.  I then brought up Aristotle's notion of balance and asked if it could apply to money. 

After summer school, as I meet with a teacher who will be on my team next year, we have a discussion about tardies.  "What will you do with tardies?"  he asks me. "I'm real strict with it. Even a minute late and there needs to be a consequence."  (This given the fact that students have three minutes to use the restroom, get water, socialize and get to class) 

"Well, I just have them stay after class the same amount of time that they were late," I explain. 

"No, I mean where do you have them go?" 

"To their seat." 

"That's not how we did it last year.  I would write a pass and students would go to another teacher's class.  After five times, they got a referral."

"What happened then?"

"They got a referral."

"But what was the punishment?"

"I said, 'they got a referral.'"  He seems visibly frustrated, so I switch modes. "Why is it important for kids to show up on time?"

"So they won't miss my class."

"So, you send them out for five minutes when they are a minute late." 

"It's the rules.  They need to follow the rules."  And once you play the 'rules' card, you can't ask "why" anymore.  That's just the way it is. 

I once sat through a two hour meeting about how to administer a standardized test.  We debated for twenty five minutes about breathmints.  It was like the middle ages debates about how many angels could fit on the head of a needle.  Meanwhile no one ever asked a question about the reliability, authenticity or valididity of the AIMS test.  My point is this: junior high kids are still at a place where they ask the question, "Why?" Yet, at some point, it seems that people quit asking questions.   

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