The Magical Forest®

We all try to make sense of the world we share. For example, I find it helpful to conceptualize each of our predominantly white independent school (PWIS) communities as a magical forest that exists outside the bounds of reality. Like any good magical forest, each forest is populated with curious forest creatures engaged in a unique and peculiar dance.

Although the nuance of each dance is lost on the casual observer or novice, each of us -- the forest creatures -- have spent a significant portion of our lives mastering the intricacy of our chosen dance. While the bildungsromans (#shoutout #Englishdept) for some of us are set in magical forests similar to those in which we work, others have sought refuge from a world they found/find hostile and violent.

Whatever the reason, to me it often feels like we fancy ourselves both fugitives and guardians of a secret: If only more people read things like this, thought about things like this, acted more like this... we would be able to find clarity and peace. Many of us -- that is, the forest creatures -- are so committed to what we understand as the liberatory power of our particular dance that we can reflexively dismiss dances we do not immediately recognize.

To students and families, the advice I offer is part of my own dance: Recognize that your time in this particular forest is finite. Once the summer winds blow, it will be time to twirl away to meet another set of curious creatures -- each as fiercely dedicated to spreading their own 'good news' as the last. Wander through the forest. Be curious: what is it about our dance that enchants us? See if you can decipher what it is we love about the nuance of our chosen dance. 

Hegemony masks itself as common sense, as just the way things are. 

The Magical Forest framework offers us all an opportunity to think about the different discursive norms and expectations we understand as "common sense." For teachers, recognizing ourselves in the forest creatures offers us an opportunity to reflect on our ways of being in the world. It is important to note that our "dance" is not the dance of just one discourse, but rather a compilation of multiple competing discourses that "speak through us" as we engage with the world around us (Gee, 2001). Working to understand and distinguish the nuance of each of the intersecting discourses provides us an opportunity to acquire the "meta-level knowledge" of multiple discourses needed to "seriously criticize and thus change a discourse" (Gee, 2001, p.6).

For students and their families, the Magical Forest offers them a framework to understand why their teachers seem so "picky" and critical of their written work and/or level of participation in class. In other words, the framework positions students to constructively receive their teacher's feedback -- that is, not a referendum on their intelligence, but rather a signpost guiding them toward and through the nuance of this particular discourse.

This is similar to teaching students how to enact a second-order change because while the "facts" remain the same, the conceptual and emotional setting has changed. As Watzlawick and colleagues (2011) assert, "it is the premise that things should be a certain way which is the problem and which requires change, and not the way things are" (p.60) and "it obviously makes a difference whether we consider ourselves as pawns in a game whose rules we call reality or as players of the game who know that the rules are 'real' only to the extent that we have created or accepted them, and that we can change them" (p.27).

There are two potentially problematic aspects of The Magical Forest framework that I point out to students. The first is the idea of wandering through the magical forest can invoke the independent cultural script -- that is, potentially the myth of the "rugged individual." I remind students that we do not journey through life alone and to always be on the lookout for fellow travelers: Take care of each other. 

Another potentially problematic aspect of the curious forest creature archetype is that it could be seen as downplaying the reality, toxicity, and violence of racism and white supremacy in a community in which whiteness is considered the norm. This is why it is important to start by asserting that the magical forest "exists outside the bounds of reality" -- that is, a reality in which the current status quo is both oppressive and supported by a toxic culture of white supremacy (Freire, 1993; Bell, 1993). 

Note: My approach to critical mentoring was initially inspired and informed by the work of Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan (Ph.D.).