In all her years of teaching—seventeen in total—Mrs. Marlow had never walked into a quieter classroom full of students. It was a new experience for her.
It was also new for the kids.
Dave watched Mrs. Marlow go to the front of the room and pick up her attendance book.The teacher looked at the list of names in the book, looked up and down the rows of the class, looked at the book again, and said,“I thought maybe I was in the wrong room. Pretty quiet in here today. Can someone tell me why?”
No hands went up.
But Mrs. Marlow was watching for anything that might give her a clue about this unusual behavior.
And after her question, she saw a few sly glances between kids, and she noticed some of them trying to hide a smile. She knew what those looks and smiles meant:These kids were keeping a secret.
Time for her first experiment.
Looking over the class, Mrs. Marlow settled her eyes on Seth Townsend, smiled, and said, “So, Seth, did you do your science homework last night?”
With no hesitation, Seth smiled back and said, “Yes, I did.”
Mrs. Marlow looked at Amy Gilson and said, “How about you, Amy?”
She nodded and said,“It was hard.” “Really? What did you think was hard about it?” she asked.
Amy scrunched up her face and then said, “Too much math.”
Her answer got a lot of nods and a few laughs from the other kids, but then it went completely quiet again.
Mrs. Marlow couldn’t get over how beautifully these children were behaving. Just yesterday, she had asked one student a question, and about fifteen others had blurted out answers, and then the whole class began arguing, and that had started a huge free-for-all that didn’t end until she banged on her desk with a book. It was always like that with this class, and with the other fifth-grade classes too.
But not today. No one talked at all . . . unless she asked a question.
Which gave Mrs. Marlow an idea. “Please get out your homework sheets.” There was a lot of rustling and bustling as the students obeyed.
“Now,” she said.“Ellen, look at problem number one. How did you decide if the given quantities were reasonable?”
Ellen riffled through her papers, and the look on her face surprised Mrs. Marlow: Ellen looked scared.
It was one of the standard questions about science problems, a question the whole class was used to. But the girl seemed completely confused. Mrs. Marlow could see that she’d done the assignment. Plus, Ellen was one of the best science students. What was she so scared about?
After a few moments of what looked like absolute panic, Ellen calmed down. Then, very slowly, she said, “The numbers . . . worked.”
Mrs. Marlow waited for the rest of her explanation. It didn’t come.
“Right,” she said,“and . . .” “I . . . made estimates,” Ellen said.