Nobody blamed the mechanic when the engine seized. Nobody blamed the plumber when the sewer backed up. Nobody blamed Amanda when the hair turned gummy.

So why do we blame teachers when students make their own choices?

This episode is about accountability — who has it, who gets assigned it, and why teachers may be the only professionals penalized for the outcome of other people's decisions. It's also about a parent meeting that probably shouldn't have happened, a student sitting at ninety percent all year, and a dozen AP Seminar students who knocked on my door after their exam with the dam about to break.

Hi Emm. I know you're listening.

Through the Undertow. Episode 5: Nobody Blames the Plumber.

About fifteen years ago a ninth grader presented a book talk on Animal Farm. He knew the plot. He knew the characters. He got to the conclusion — and described the wrong ending. Not Orwell's bleak, devastating final image of pigs indistinguishable from humans. The movie's ending. Napoleon overthrown. Hope restored. Wrong book. Wrong ending. Wrong medium entirely.

This episode is about something I used to do for fun — and what happened when I remembered it was also exactly right.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

A learning walk took me into a middle school colleague's classroom where I watched something work. Mr. McCaffrey's hot seat. A student in a chair, peers asking questions. I filed it away. Didn't think about using it myself.

A month later I was planning the Gatsby unit —this episode is about what happened next.

PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Mr. Barch — Dean of Students, Ninth Grade Academy. Brought the learning walk practice to our district's administration.

Mr. McCaffrey — Middle School ELA Teacher. His hot seat with The Diary of Anne Frank is why this episode exists.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: PEYTON'S PRINTS

One of my students — Peyton, a junior — just got her driver's license. Which feels like a footnote given that she's been flying planes for quite a while. She also takes college classes on top of her high school schedule and runs her own 3D printing business.

Peyton's Prints: Where Your Ideas Take Flight.

If you're looking for custom 3D printing, check her out:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@boots63 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Peyton-Hall/pfbid02vwCfZKLefSozyRxeftYUGiBk9oTBB7m9x2y9t4v8xbrNEfw8G9ABZtSJo8SgN92yl/

Peyton — keep flying.

MY HOT SEAT FORMAT

STRUCTURE — Six major characters, one per hot seat session — Each character has a primary student and an understudy — Two hot seats per week over four weeks — One comfortable armchair at the front of the room

THE QUESTIONS — Students ask questions organized by critical lens — Historical lens: questions about the era, context, social conditions — Feminist lens: questions about gender roles and power — Existentialist lens: questions about meaning, choice, identity — Postcolonial lens: questions about power, race, colonization — Psychoanalytical lens: questions about motivation, unconscious drives — Marxist lens: questions about class, wealth, economic power

THE RULES — Questions are conversational, not technical — Peers ask first by lens group, teacher asks last — Open Q&A at the teacher's discretion — No advance knowledge of which questions are coming

WHY IT WORKS AGAINST AI DRIFT The preparation AI can do is generic. The questions your students ask are specific, contextual, and human. ChatGPT can summarize the plot and explain the symbolism. It cannot prepare a student for sixteen peers who sat through the same lectures, read the same chapters, and are now asking questions from six different critical frameworks in real time with no warning about which lens comes next.

Peer judgment is the thing AI cannot generate.

THE FRIXION MARKERS

Frixion fine-point erasable markers. Most useful device in my life. Because I change my mind. Because I make mistakes. Because what worked last year doesn't always work this year. Erase what doesn't work. Try again.

ABOUT THROUGH THE UNDERTOW

Through the Undertow is about what happens to thinking when it becomes optional. For teachers, parents, tutors, homeschoolers, and anyone who cares about what's happening to the next generation of thinkers.

My professor asked me to explain my data analysis out loud. In my own words. Notes right in front of me.

I froze.

That moment sent me back to my classroom with a question I couldn't shake — how many of my students are submitting work they couldn't explain out loud if someone asked? So I added one element to a summative assessment I'd never tried before. An oral defense.

What happened next reminded me of a Miss Teen USA moment from 2007 that the internet has never forgotten. Multiple times. Except my students had weeks to prepare.

This episode is about the one moment AI cannot swim for you. The live defense of your own ideas. What the drift looks like when it has nowhere left to hide. And twelve students who put their peer audience's phones down.

Through the Undertow. Episode 3: The Iraq and Everywhere Like Such As.