Today, April 3rd marks the first full 24 hour day that I have worn my letter. Most of my interactions with people have been in the school setting, and I have gotten a variety of different responses. It is interesting to hear my students and how they feel. Mostly people think my P stands for the Phillies, but it definitely does not; it stands for Procrastinator. When I tell people, some don't believe me. That makes me feel even worse! If I worked at what i believe to be my full capability, I bet I could be at the top of my game in every aspect of my life. I hope that my students are learning as much as I am from this. I care about them applying themes from the Scarlet Letter; but moreover, I just hope that they learn something about themselves.
Yesterday, a few 10th graders came to me to ask if they could make their own letters. I think that they believed that the scarlet emblems were just a cute way to show everyone your initials, so I explained the purpose of the assignment. I told them that the letter is not necessarily something that you should be proud of, but rather something that you recognize needs to change in your life. A symbol for a sin or crime you have committed which has negatively affected your life. Their opinions changed and they not longer "wanted to put their business out there". I thought, there are a lot of people that don't want their business put out there, but through others judgements, it gets put out there, and on a pedestal nonetheless!
Ben Franklin gets a bad wrap from many people, and there are certainly reasons for that. It is a place in which violence is commonplace and understanding can be sometimes secondary; however, I feel that so many people have embraced the challenge involved in this project. My students seem to be complying with the rules and they are providing excellent feedback. I hope that they learn a bit of humility and tolerance from their letters!!
