20 short observations from a high school teacher at year’s end

As school wraps for the summer, these notes provide a view into today’s classroom. 1. Students tell me they need their iPhones because their brains are wired differently than mine. One said, “Mr. Miller, we need the dopamine hit.” 2. By accident, an intruder alarm warning went off in one of our district schools, and a child hid in a closet and called his dad to say, “I love you.” 3. Equity and social justice initiatives continue to be handed down to teachers, and school becomes, every day, a place where the wealthiest will be educated with the wealthy, as the suburban St. Louis school where I ...