It's been a busy week. It's back to school, which for me, means going to sleep thinking about the next day, waking up far too early and not being able to sleep and waking up lesson planning and hearing your opening day speech in your head. When anything infiltrates your brain to this extent, it is cause for concern.

Here's my brief take on the week.

Teachers take many approaches to the first day. Some don't talk at all, some put up a military front. Any good teacher will teach their rules as a given, but style and message can be worlds apart even though they're across the hall from one another.

I sat on top of my table cross-legged and told them if they needed to go the bathroom, they should go themselves.

Maybe what I said didn't strike a chord. Let me devolve. The emphasis in many schools is order and silence. Having students line up silently outside your door before allowing them in is not unusual. Students are expected to enter quietly, take out their notebooks immediately and get to work immediately. Many tell students to not even bother asking to go to the bathroom during their class. In many classes, students don't have the opportunity to talk at all. They are supposed to sit straight, do the Do Now, not ask questions. The administration wants teachers to limit the amount of getting up and walking around because students will bump into one another. They're treated as though they can't be trusted to talk, walk or sit on their own without guidance.

So I tell my students, there are things that bother me, not doing homework, and not talking during the Do Now, mostly because I have to mentally decompress between periods and figure out where I am. But that's kind of it. I discourage shouting out during class discussion, but I also know when you're talking about heated topics, sometimes it can't be helped. And I told them, that if they need to go to the bathroom, they should go. One person at a time, sign out, take the pass, don't take more than 5 minutes. Don't go during the first 10 and lat 10 minutes of class because those are the school rules. But otherwise, police yourselves. Abuse the privilege, and you'll have to ask permission. And I was sitting on my table when I told them.

So it's a little radical. Not for every school. But for mine at least, and I'm guessing a few others. We'll just have to see how they respond to being treated like adults.