Hunters, gathers, and my Dayton 7th grader

Fall always makes me think of so many favorite food things… cooking down squash and pumpkins, making applesauce and cider, carving pumpkins, and definitely hunting, which invariably reminds me of one of my all-time favorite classroom moments in Dayton…

I was attempting to paint a vivid enough picture of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that my inner-city 7th graders, who were lucky to see a patch of grass or a tree on the way home, could understand and visualize.

I felt I’d been making ample progress when one of my favorites raised his hand (yes, I said favorite – he was independent, dry-wit funny, sarcastic, struggled with authority and senseless rules he must abide though they defied logic… if it weren’t for the age difference, gender, and race discrepancies, we could have been twins).

I always knew I was in trouble anytime they raised their hands enthusiastically shouting, “Miss Pierce!” before even being called on. Enthusiasm usually meant a question with which I wasn’t prepared to deal or an educating moment for Teacher.

So “Keon” says, “Yo Miss Pierce!”

”Yes Keon?”

I know for real how black people are smarter than white people!”

”Do please enlighten me, Keon – how this time?”

”Have you ever met a black hunter?”

”Well I’m sure there are, but no I’ve never met one personally.”

”Of course! That’s cuz we know we can go to Kroger!”

To this day that’s one of my favorite ice box laughs. You know the kind, when you’re standing at the ice box and you remember something so distracting and amusing you stand there laughing, forgetting what you came for!

What struck me most was that although he knew he was being funny, he was also completely serious. Amazing. The same reason I would’ve pitied him, he took as a positive. Perception is simply amazing.