“The space in which we live, which draws us out of ourselves, in which the erosion of our lives, our time and our history occurs, the space that claws and gnaws at us, is also, in itself, a heterogeneous space. In other words, we do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that could be colored with diverse shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable on one another.”

-Michel Foucault, Of Other Spaces

While I was reading this, I couldn’t help but think of the classroom and the incredibly sequestered space we call “school.” It’s interesting to look at educational environments through this lens - what parts of the space are reserved for whom? And what are the prerequisites for entering those spaces? Which spaces are used to punish / consequence / shame students? And which spaces are held in particularly high regard by those in charge? How does a teacher’s hierarchy of space differ from a student’s hierarchy of space? All of these questions fascinate me. Foucault would say it all matters:

The part of town that you grow up in matters.
The neighborhood that you teach in matters.
Whether you’re sitting in the front or the back of the classroom matters.
Your spot in line matters.
How close you are to the teacher matters.

Place and space matter.
Context is everything.

Thanks T, for introducing me to Foucault!