Carson City, Nevada, here we come...

An amusing moment at school. Starting a new project with 7th graders, I was a little unsure how it was going to go as I asked each student to nominate any U.S. city other than St. Louis that he would be interested in researching and then to list the defining qualities of a “livable city.”

I’d been agonizing for days about whether to assign the groups and topics or whether to let students choose their own. I eventually went for the latter, and made it part of the process they had to canvas for support based on the merits of the city. We did it caucus-style with kids making their way around the room until each student was in a group of three and committed to a topic.

I encouraged them to think broadly about cities. I’d pushed them to consider not just New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco etc. – but to also think about access to nature, variations in weather, affordability – all kinds of factors that would favor smaller cities and more offbeat choices.

So it was perhaps a twist I could have seen coming when a kid called Carson said he wanted to research Carson City, Nevada (population 60,000). But it was an enormous surprise when pulled off the amazing coup of convincing two friends to commit to spending the next six class periods as a part of his group researching Carson City with him.

Comments

  1. Kate DMarch 8, 2024 at 8:33 AM

    Oh, the stranglehold of charisma on Middle School politics is real. I hope the Carson City gang have a grand time with it. I remember doing a similar project as a kid; my two friends and I planned the most unhinged trip to London and presented it as travel guides with tips for how to smuggle a penguin on the Tube.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tracy BroschMarch 9, 2024 at 6:03 AM

    I have a nephew named Carson which makes this extra funny to me somehow. Cheers to our Carson's persuasive abilities!

    ReplyDelete

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