It's A Paradox!

     What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?  The easy answer is that each destroys the other.  That is on the surface, and doesn't take much thought.
     Scientifically (In the real world) there are no unstoppable, or irresistible forces, which also means that any object is movable.  An immovable object would have to have infinite mass (An object with this kind of mass would simply collapse under its own weight).  Since our universe is finite...this could never happen.
     Philosophically...there is no force that can move everything, because force is a PART of everything.
     OK...enough of that!  Let's take the unstoppable force, and immovable object paradox into the classroom.  Let's go right-brain on this, let's keep it poetic, and artsy-fartsy.
     Let's say there is an imaginary classroom filled with students.  There is a teacher, and amongst the students is a kid who came in with a very popular, and talked about reputation.  A reputation in the negative.  This kid spent more time in the Principal's office than the classroom.   This kid has no problem showing his attitude, nor is he inhibited regarding his anger.  When he is told to stop talking, or to sit at his desk, or to stop bullying someone...he responds with high demonstrations of pissed off! 
     If we apply the paradox to the imaginary scene above...who is the unstoppable force, and who is the immovable object?  One scenario might dictate that it doesn't matter...the kid and the teacher will butt heads, and either destroy one another, or simply go nowhere.  I believe this happens more often than not.
     I have seen...both as a student and as an educator...kids who have taken the position of an immovable object, or an unstoppable force.  I have witnessed these kids thrown out of class, or moved entirely to another class.  In my youth I saw immovable objects paddled, and as an adult I have seen unstoppable forces fall through the cracks.
     Even in an imaginary classroom the paradox doesn't work.  The kid suffers, the teacher suffers.  So what are we to do?  The reality is that any given number of classrooms will have at least one aggressively demonstrative kid at any given time.  One kid who seems immovable.  One kid who seems unstoppable.  If anyone does read this blog of mine...I know that you could list each one of your kids throughout the years who fit the bill. 
     As teachers we must be dominant in the classroom.  As educators we must be able to stand our ground, and address what needs addressing always.  We must be the lion!  We must be the unstoppable force AND the immovable object...but NOT in the same sense as in the paradox.
     No one is omnipotent...that position is reserved for whatever God you believe in.   Only in an omnipotent being can both the unstoppable force, and the immovable object coexist.  Yet, I stated that teachers must be both...remember, I said I was going artsy-fartsy, and right-brain with this.
     An unstoppable force denotes movement...something moving until it is stopped by something else.  An educator doesn't have to crash into a student in order to make a point.  Unstoppable here means to never give up!  Never shut-down, nor shut-out.  There may be some roaring, and/or ugliness in the beginning, but NOTHING ever starts out perfect...does it?  Find that kid, and I don't mean physically find him.  Never stop looking under the layers.  Be unstoppable.  If a kid realizes that you are unstoppable...he/she will eventually let you in.
     An immovable object denotes something fixed, motionless.  Here this means an educator who will not move aside and let any student stray.  It also means that each student has their own paths, each with many tiny tributaries to trouble, or mischief, or the unknown.   We MUST remain on our path, leading our kids towards enlightenment.  We may even have to go out into the dark forest to find one or more of our kids, and guide them back to the path.  Some will come kicking and screaming, but they will come.  Our path is ground zero...it is the epicenter.  We must show our kids that we are on the path for them, and that we will not let them get lost, or ever get lost again.
     I could no more give up on my students than I could give up on my own son.  I know that there are others capable of doing this out there...giving up on their students.  I am not intelligent enough to state how they became capable...I just don't know?
     Through the years I have had students transferred into my classroom from other classrooms in my school.  It seemed that the paradox was alive and well in the latter classroom.  Not my artsy-fartsy view of the paradox...the head-butting version of it.  These kids, these strays who were abandoned and found their way to me helped to make my classroom that much more AWESOME!  These strays who quickly became mine...are etched fondly in my memories.  I am the one who benefited the most from these kids, and I am eternally grateful, and honored to have once been their teacher.