Ms. Frizzle: The First Rogue Educator
Okay, we all know Ms. Frizzle was awesome. And obviously, she had a literal magic school bus to make her field trips amazing. But, let’s talk about a couple of practical ways Ms. Frizzle and her class were set up for success.
- On the television show, she only had eight students in her class. Eight! Can you even imagine the things that could be accomplished in the classroom if we only had eight students to teach and guide?!
- Ms. Frizzle and her class were able to leave the school building any time. Either the parents signed permission slips that were just left off-screen, or the parents trusted their child’s teacher to, you know, make professional decisions and take good care of their students.
- She had her students with her all day and was thus able to focus on a single subject for an extended period of time. In Ms. Frizzle’s case, she specialized in science, but she always had her students exploring science through all kinds of activities that also emphasized literacy, geography, math, and current events. The Magic School Bus books illustrate this beautiful blend especially clearly through all the side-activities that are happening alongside the narration. Elementary teachers have this advantage in theory, but they too are expected to cover various subjects throughout a day.
Ms. Frizzle’s motto is “Ask questions, make mistakes, and get messy.” This is the model we need as we bring institutionalized schooling up to date. Real science, real writing, real problem-solving, and real life are complex. They are not compartmentalized. Ms. Frizzle is awesome at teaching her students to ask questions because she models it. She asks them questions all the time that gently point them to big realizations. She capitalizes on mistakes, again guiding her students to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. And she has no fear of getting messy, or pushing her students to get messy.
And much of the reason Ms. Frizzle can be awesome at guiding her students, is because she knows her students. She only has eight of them. And they only have eight of each other. When you know your students so intimately, it is so much easier to ask them the right guiding questions, to draw on their learning strengths, and help them scaffold each other through their weaknesses.
21st-Century schooling must be based on relationships. Most teachers know this and strive for it. Most teachers choose teaching because they want to be relational. But our overarching policies and standards must adjust accordingly. We must set our students and teachers up for relational success so that we can have academic success.
In case you didn’t know, you can enjoy the original and remix Magic School Bus episodes on Netflix right now. They’re a huge hit in our family 🙂
