"So, what's the deal with blue apples?"
This is one of the most commonly asked questions I get when students peruse the decor of my classroom, where I have several blue apple tributes. One of those, by the way, includes a 15-year old painted blue apple given to me as an end-of-the-year teacher gift by Bobby Higginbotham, who was in my very first 5th grade class in 1995 - it's made out of resin and filled with sand, and is now plugged on both ends with globs of hot glue because at some point when it was being used as my hall pass, some students had a bit too much fun playing with it and, if I'm not mistaken, the poke-a-pencil-in-the-blue-apple game got out of control...! But I still cherish it and prominently display it on a shelf behind my desk.
What is a blue apple? I'm so glad you asked! Basically, a blue apple is a metaphor. You knew it was coming. I'm an English teacher, so of course figurative language MUST factor into the discussion! The exact metaphorical reference, though, is hard to pin down. It's a combination of risk-taking and the lack of comfort; a weird mixture of venturing into the unknown and committing to persevere even when circumstances are mundane. Basically, when we bite blue apples in life, we move into a time/place/relationship/circumstance for which we have no guarantee of success nor do we know what the situation will feel or be like. I first heard the story of the blue apple during June 1986, when I walked into a huge gymnasium full of strangers at the opening session of the Mississippi Governor's School at MUW and heard the analogy in the director, Dr. Guy Rose's, welcome speech. I was honored to have been chosen as one of 150 Mississippi high schoolers to attend Governor's School, and even though it meant giving up cheerleading my senior year of high school, that decision was a HUGE blue apple for me and it was one that changed my life dramatically, in many ways.
When I introduce the concept to students, I ask them to imagine themselves walking among trees, looking up and all of a sudden noticing a bright, shiny blue apple in the midst of ordinary (green, red, yellow) ones. The question that they must then answer is: WILL YOU TAKE A BITE OF THAT BLUE APPLE?!?! Now, it's very interesting to me to see - without giving them a third option - which students choose to take a bite without hesitation and which say they would just walk away and pretend like they never saw it. After I allow them to verbalize some options for a third choice there are, of course, many suggestions for studying/testing the blue apple before actually taking a bite. The discussion is a nice ice-breaker for the first week of class and reveals some important insights about my students. But perhaps more importantly, the story illustrates a point that I want students to absorb and contemplate time and time again in my class: thinking about decisions and planning for the future is important, but there are sometimes moments that transcend logic and pro/con lists. Personal comfort and guaranteed success should not be our only decision-making parameters! For some students, taking an Honors or AP class is a blue apple . . . for another student, breaking off a bad relationship might be his or her blue apple moment . . . for yet another, auditioning for the school musical or trying out for (or dropping off!) an athletic team might be huge blue apples.
After 17 years, through both my classroom and DI experiences, I've witnessed some amazing blue apple-biting!! How amazing it is to see middle school and high school students break out of their "molds" and try something new, even if they have no idea what the new experience will be like. These students inspire me and boost my spirits in a way that is hard to describe. Even after they are not "my students" anymore, these young people (my oldest former students are 30-31 years old . . . so they are still young to me!) are still inspiring me via facebook (mostly, although I do get to see some in person on occasion)!!
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