During my practicum, I had the opportunity to implement some of the ideas I had formulated during my inquiry project.  In all my classes, curricular texts provided the opportunity to discuss economic class, but none more so than my eighth grade humanities class where I was teaching S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders.  Written by S.E. Hinton when she was only seventeen years old and set in 1964 Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Outsiders follows the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his orphaned brothers and their friends, who are economically disadvantaged Greasers; and the explosive events that occur between them and a rival gang of upper middle class Socs. I had anticipated the novel study for several months and had even discussed it in my inquiry project in the fall term. My inquiry had focused on “How we discuss socio-economic class in the classroom” and considered, in part, the economic composition of my practicum school in East Vancouver; for instance, there is a $90 000 difference between the maximum income and minimum income of the school’s households. When I wrote my inquiry in December, these figures, while distressing, were numbers on a page. In April, these numbers were now irrevocably linked with students. I knew Grade 11 students who drove BMWs to school, while others worked three part-time jobs to help pay rent. In my Grade 8 class, I knew some students owned cottages in the Gulf Islands, while others shared two bedroom apartments with five family members.

A mind map developed by eighth graders detailing the differences between Greasers and Socs.

As we studied The Outsiders, I tried to cultivate empathy for Ponyboy, his family, and friends; and encouraged students to understand how both the Greasers and the Socs are limited by their circumstances. I was therefore dispirited when one student asked why Ponyboy and his brothers spent money on alcohol, cigarettes, and cake if they were poor—couldn’t their resources be put to better use? This student had a valid concern, so we spent some time considering the economic details of the Curtis clan—their jobs, their education, and the hope Ponyboy represented. I was frustrated, however, when this student was joined by others in her condemnation of the choices the Greasers made; my frustration was compounded because I knew these students to be from affluent homes. It pained me further to realize that not two seats away, her classmate struggled to complete homework assignments because his home had neither reliable power nor internet. How could I cultivate empathy in the more affluent students and promote advocacy against inequity? How could I avoid cultivating deficit models in my classroom? The exchange troubles me still.

My experience while teaching The Outsiders drew me back to my inquiry question and the challenges of discussing class in the classroom.  During the summer term of my B.Ed., I took a Drama Institute course; the final assignment for the course was to develop a curricular role drama. I chose to focus my role drama on The Oustiders and developed The Outsiders Role Drama  partly in the hopes of cultivating empathy for the characters and their circumstances, both Greasers and Socs.  I look forward to opportunities to use this role drama in the classroom, to continually reframe and reimagine my inquiry topic and the discussion of socioeconomic class in the classroom, and to use discomfiting experiences as opportunities for my own pedagogical growth.