THE 12X16 RAFT
In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the young narrator Huck discovers that the river liberates him from the constraints of the land-dwellers, represented by his strict aunt, his abusive father, and community after community of chaos. On his raft, whose dimensions are 12 feet by 16 feet, he and the runaway slave Jim create their own world, one in which white and black, youth and experience, faith and superstition, racism and acceptance coincide and coexist.
After struggling with his learned racism, Huck decides that if being on this 12x16 raft with Jim is going to get him sent to hell, then "All right, then, I'll go to hell." He undoes his old ways of thinking and undergoes a paradigm shift.
That's 192 square feet of change.
We believe that the 12x16 raft is a safe space in which Huck and Jim (or students and teachers) can co-create and negotiate. It is when only one group creates (teachers delivering curriculum, students regurgitating the teacher's delivery) that animosity is born, when boredom thrives, when the potential thrill of learning is stifled, and when no one risks anything. Students and teachers come from all kinds of backgrounds, with all kinds of identities, skills, talents, and interests. A classroom should be a safe space for all learners (including the teacher) to co-exist.
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