Sixteen introduced me to sneaker culture

Sixteen was a lesson, pure and simple. I grew up in a place and time when Chuck Taylor’s or Keds were fine and interchangeable, and nobody cared much about what kind of sneakers you had.

As I transitioned into middle school from elementary I learned that there was a very real and very serious hierarchy based on which sneakers you wore and the condition they’re in.

I was struggling when I started teaching 7th grade because I had mostly worked with younger children up to that point, and third graders are exceedingly different than seventh graders. I had my mentor in the room while I was teaching reading one day because I had a particularly difficult group that was mostly boys and they were not thrilled because they were reading below grade level and they felt self-conscious. I don’t blame them. I understood then how they felt then, and I understand even better now. However, that did not excuse the fact that they took every opportunity to disrupt class, mostly in order to get out of having to read or answer questions, but also because I was new and they were testing me as all good teenagers do. Yes, I do actually have a sense of humor about it now. At the time it was flat out scary to have a giant young man jump up and threaten me when I accidentally moved a chair and had the foot of the chair hit Sixteen’s brand new, uncreased, pure white sneaker.

I apologized of course, I’d never meant to have the chair touch him but the room was pretty full so I accepted responsibility for the accident, but he was livid. I’d never seen a child get so angry before, and I had absolutely never seen anyone get angry at all about a sneaker before.

I am fully aware that some readers will be baffled and some will cringe at this juncture in the story. Either being confused why I am talking about new sneakers or horrified that I could be so callous as to destroy a pristine shoe. Understand, at the time I had no idea what made him so furious.

After Sixteen launched himself out of the chair and stood very close to me while yelling at me and threatening me I had a moment when I thought ‘I’m out of here!’ but I suppose I’m just too stubborn to actually quit because my mentor teacher took him for a walk and I finished the class, and the day, and went home and processed and came back the next day, and the decade+ years since then.

What I learned that day, aside from not to touch anyone’s sneakers, was that I was going to have to learn to take up more space. I was going to have to learn to puff out my chest and command respect (It wasn’t until the next year that I learned you only get respect when you give it) so that these giant boys wouldn’t take advantage of me and my newness in a middle school environment. What I learned on a deeper level though was that I knew that I knew how to manage a classroom and how to plan a good lesson and how to create good curriculum and plans. I just had to change how I saw the people in front of me. They weren’t tiny children, they were getting ready for high school and they were going to resent me if I didn’t treat them like they were old enough to make up their own minds about what they thought and how they were going to act and react. That lesson has stayed with me every day since and I’m a better teacher because of it. Thank you Sixteen.