Two Hours Before Fucking Whore

Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead

Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now (your time is now)

Butterflies and Hurricanes, by MUSE (Bellamy, 2003)

 

10.00 o’clock. A classroom. Thirteen children. Becoming-teacher (BT). Two classroom assistants. The objective: Introduce The Timeline Project. This mosaic follows a becoming- teacher introducing a new project to a class and the effects of this unfolding encounter.

Becoming -teacher steps into the classroom and walks towards the door to let the class in. Hands are already yanking the locked door from the outside:

 


(R, pp. 5-7)

The above scene unfolds two hours before becoming- teacher faces a child shouting “Fucking whore” to another child (R, p. 9). Now, at 10.30 when the introduction is finished, it is time for children to begin working on The Timeline Project. They have one-hundred-and-five minutes more to go. And after that there is one hour of math before the classroom empties and bodies can leave for the day. But there is always tomorrow. And the day after that.   

Returning to these events, I see how I too go hide in categories; I was there as ‘a researcher’ I tell myself. But I was also there as an adult, a teacher, a teacher-educator, a mother, a sensing body, one more adult seeing, hearing, and at that moment doing nothing.     

You and I have a privilege the above bodies do not have, as we can leave this situation. I will claim this privilege. First, a moment to simply breathe.

References

Bellamy, M. (2003). Butterflies and Hurricanes [Song]. On Absolution. Atlantic Records.