A Tattle tale (or day 3 of 8 in Ms. Rybarzicks class)
Talking to a class of 3rd graders is to talk through a sticky web of interfearance where all of your words and wisdom are caught up on the barbs of incessant tattling. The kids never do anything particuarly bad, but they constantly tell on each other as if they'd just witnessed the crime of the century. And this is how they find meaning, by maintaining law and justice in the presence of a substitute teacher, who is essentially, a symbol opposing all thing normal and regular within their day.
Even Faisal, who does not speak a word of english, and clearly should have more support in the classroom has learned to communicate the tattle by pointing urgently towards the offending student and then towards the crime- whether it be a broken pencil or a line drawn on his paper.
However, to say "no tatteling" is to introduce an entirely new and more powerful pandemonium into the room, wherein their daily system is not simply set askew, but wholly inverted. To say "no tattling" is to say "no thinking thoughts" or "no breathing". It makes them immediately question the limits of their new lawless universe, thus forcing me to exchange my previous edict with something more complicated, something which punishes both the tattler and the tattled upon(the latter more severely). This is a gordian knot in child logic; they now see a way to get an accused peer in twice as much trouble, which makes them tremble with joy, but it is essentially a paradox since they can't possibly condemn themselves in the proccess. Therefor, they become frustrated quite nearly to tears and ultimately we must go back to where we began, to a simpler kind of chaos.
Even Faisal, who does not speak a word of english, and clearly should have more support in the classroom has learned to communicate the tattle by pointing urgently towards the offending student and then towards the crime- whether it be a broken pencil or a line drawn on his paper.
However, to say "no tatteling" is to introduce an entirely new and more powerful pandemonium into the room, wherein their daily system is not simply set askew, but wholly inverted. To say "no tattling" is to say "no thinking thoughts" or "no breathing". It makes them immediately question the limits of their new lawless universe, thus forcing me to exchange my previous edict with something more complicated, something which punishes both the tattler and the tattled upon(the latter more severely). This is a gordian knot in child logic; they now see a way to get an accused peer in twice as much trouble, which makes them tremble with joy, but it is essentially a paradox since they can't possibly condemn themselves in the proccess. Therefor, they become frustrated quite nearly to tears and ultimately we must go back to where we began, to a simpler kind of chaos.