Frank Thoms, Teacher in the Rye

His apparent lack of appearance reminds teachers that they need to recruit each and every student every day. When one is not recognized or acknowledged, it allows for his withdrawal, separation, isolation, and possible resentment.

Kegan reminds teachers to be on alert outside their classrooms. In the lunch room, for example, when she sees a student alone she might ask other students to sit at his table; or she might sit with him. No one should be isolated.

Kegan alerts teachers to be responsible to invite every student into the culture of their classroom. One example from Somersworth, New Hampshire, High School, principal Brian Flanagan asked teachers heading a club or team to act as a safety net for their students. Those who were not in a club or team lunched with him and his vice principal. Every student was ‘covered.’ Simple to implement––and wise.

Kegan’s statement to teachers is an appeal to all of us in this time of separation, of forced separation, of seeking to root out people in our country who are declared ‘different.’ Kegan’s ‘recruitment of students’ speaks to all of us, ’we the people’ who are ’E pluribus unum, out of many, one.’

As teachers, who in the classroom treat all as one, so should all Americans treat one another as one. Undocumented immigrants, who have been coming here since 1607, only recently have been declared unwelcome––and by sons of immigrants themselves!