SPREADING ROOTS

There is a serious amount of silence during my classes, which I guess I should be grateful for, since roots always spread in silence. My young students make a habit of holding their thoughts inside, and, as exasperating as it sometimes is for me, perhaps this is what allows the thoughts to slowly send out roots. Gardeners gradually come to see that plants cannot be pressured into growing, and teachers must likewise discover that neither can ideas, especially those of students who are just starting to rise to the surface of their lives. In the sometimes resounding silence of my English class, the freshly-made thoughts of the students are, I like to think, slowly distributing their roots out and down into the depths of insight and wisdom. It makes me wonder if I should actually foster more silence in my classes, reasoning that this would support the expansion and emergence of the students’ newest ideas. Maybe I should make an occasional announcement that we will now hold our silence for 60 seconds so our freshest thoughts can come closer to the surface