When I found out I was going to be teaching Psych this
semester I was STOKED. This was my undergrad major, I have a passion for it,
and the sophomore girls that I taught in the past loved the class.

So I assumed that I too I would be teaching sophomore girls.
I imagined a class that explored the latest research on mindfulness, social
emotional learning, and self care on top of all of the great units in the scope
and sequence. Our girls are primed for this stuff since it is embedded in Frosh
Wellness and many of the programs we have on campus.

Before I left for summer I learned that this would NOT be a
class of sophomore girls but rather an elective class for seniors. Of the 28
students in the class 24 were boys. How did this happen??

Some of my assumptions about a class full of senior boys was
right – Yes they are excited to talk about some of the fascinating yet unethical psychological
experiments which traumatized children and animals. Their tolerance for gore is high and sometimes I feel like
what they want my class to be a place for watching and discussing Criminal Minds (which to be honest also sounds pretty okay).

I say all that to say that I started removing a lot of what
I had originally planned including some work with mindfulness and social
emotional learning because I assumed that the boys would not see it as relevant to their lives (which obviously says more about me than it does about them). I really went back and forth on choosing curriculum because I was sure
that they were going to think something like self care or meditation was soft, weak, & lame (this is of
course was made up in my own head and is not based on reality).

While I do feel like I needed to adapt this class as my
target audience had changed,  I had wrongly (but didn’t know it yet) told a story in my
head about who my students were, what they thought, and what we needed. So it
took every ounce of courage (I’m not even kidding, I was really nervous) to
roll out a daily mindfulness practice with them.

Here is how I rolled it out: I told them that we would be
practicing mindfulness daily (using the calm app, thank God for free teacher resources). They were invited but not required to
participate. If they did not want to participate they just had to put their
head on the desk and zone out. They were not allowed to give me their feedback
on it for TWO WEEKS. One because I was not in a place to hear their criticism
yet and two because I wanted them to really give it a chance before they
labeled it. On Friday I surveyed them and this is what I got (see below).  

To my shock not one person thought it was a waste of time and all of them want to continue it at least twice a week. I feel simultaneously super happy and like the biggest jerk for assuming what would and wouldn’t resonate with my students based solely on which side of the street they came from. 

What else am I wrongly assuming as a teacher? What stories do I need to stop making up in my head? What are the other assumptions I make that might be preventing me from opening doors to my students?