Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School

The Crossroads School is a social justice-oriented, progressive school serving a diverse urban community. All faculty have a strong social justice mission, and the school attempts to disrupt power imbalances between children and adults through various means (e.g., having students address teachers by their first names). Emily, a six-year teacher new to teaching first grade, believes teachers ought to treat students with high expectations using a calm, nonauthoritarian approach. She seeks to treat her students as independent agents while modeling the empathy and emotional intelligence she expects of them. She does not employ a traditional system of rewards and punishments to try to modify student behavior, instead encouraging students to take breaks when they need to. She plans her lessons carefully, but students such as Sean and Marcus consistently disrupt them while rejecting her efforts to engage them as peers. Emily admits to Shalaby that she is frustrated with her class, but she tries to find happiness with her students where she can—something she is better able to do toward the end of the year due to the lightened academic load.