the definition of...

cultural disconnect.

last week in class, one of my boys asked if he could go to the nurse to get some vaseline.

"why?"
"to put on my tattoo. it itches." (yes, he is 13 and yes he has a new tattoo on his wrist. and yes it says "nina" and yes i asked why he had "little girl" written on his wrist. my spanish speakers all laughed.)

after i explained that a new tattoo was not a reason to go to the nurse, one of my girls told him not to worry because she had some oil in her bag. she promptly pulled out a bottle of olive oil. with a look of utter disbelief and confusion, i inquired as to why she would have olive oil in her bag and whether or not she was planning to use it to cook a meal.

with the exact same look of disbelief and confusion, my students responded that it was for her hair. and what on earth would i cook with olive oil. fried chicken? they use crisco.

i'm not kidding, that's exactly how the conversation went. in education we'd say that our schema didn't match up.

and people want to argue there's no cultural bias on standardized tests.