I can’t believe what I heard today. My mind is still reeling.
A coworker stopped me a this morning to ask my “advice” on a situation at her son’s private Christian school. Not sure that I can do justice to the description, but let me try to “splain-it” the best I can.
Her son is in 8th grade. His English teacher is a “dynamic young teacher” who is in his 3rd year. Apparently this teacher has a mantra of “keeping it real” for his students. Therefore, as an English assignment, students were required to do the following:
- Think of an experience in your life in which someone said or did something that really hurt your feelings.
- In order to really get in touch with those feelings, write a letter to that person explaining what was done and how it made you feel.
- Read your letter aloud to the class during group sharing.
- Find an address for the offending person and mail the letter.
Failure to participate in any of the above steps will result in a “0” for the final test score.
Parents were not informed of this assignment.
I feel a bit like Jerry Seinfeld responding to one of Kramer’s lame-brained ideas: “Oh yeah…no way this can backfire.”
Since when did 8th grade English teachers become qualified psychotherapists? And don’t even get me started on the theological, sociological and organizational problems with this approach.
This is a nuclear issue, and I imagine the casualties from the fall-out will be far and wide.