Teaching: Just Like Performing Magic

Audrey Cleo Yap “Ch-ch-tsss. Ch-ch-tsss.” On a chilly Wednesday morning, Baja Poindexter sounded out the steps of the rumba to a classroom of fifth-graders at West Athens Elementary School, located in one of Los Angeles’s most violent neighborhoods. She encouraged her class of mostly Latino students to do the same.

Damian Dovarganes / AP Education, at its most engaging, is performance art. From the moment a teacher steps into the classroom, students look to him or her to set the tone and course of study for everyone, from the most enthusiastic to the most apathetic students. Even teachers who have moved away from the traditional lecture format, toward more learner autonomy-supportive approaches such as project-based and peer-to-peer learning, still need to engage students in the process, and serve as a vital conduit between learner and subject matter.

Laura McKenna wrote an informative piece for us detailing how “more than half of community-college students struggle with food insecurity.” A reader counters her many references to “hunger” by pointing to a study: The truth is, there’s an “obesity epidemic” at community colleges: That [2010] study found a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among students attending the two-year colleges, with a particularly sharp difference for females.

Laura McKenna wrote an informative piece for us detailing how “more than half of community-college students struggle with food insecurity.” A reader counters her many references to “hunger” by pointing to a study: The truth is, there’s an “obesity epidemic” at community colleges: That [2010] study found a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among students attending the two-year colleges, with a particularly sharp difference for females.

Students at the University of Colorado gather in support of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, during a demonstration in Boulder. Rick Wilking / Reuters Amid a surge in student-led protests around the country, many colleges have been struggling to make their campuses more accommodating for minorities. Last semester, student-activist groups nationwide issued demands to their universities seeking everything from mandatory sensitivity-and-racial-bias training to the development of safe spaces on campus for people of color.