The Next Shell
I’ve had many classroom pets over the years - everything from tarantulas to corn snakes to fuzzy, yellow ducklings. My favorite has always been a somewhat mischievous little hermit crab that I inherited from another teacher. I didn’t know very much about hermit crabs at the time, but he came to our classroom with everything already in his little habitat, and the kids were endlessly fascinated with bringing him shells of all sizes and colors. How could I say no?
Hermit crabs live in the same shell until they get too big and then they move into a new shell. If you’ve never watched a hermit crab leave its old, comfortable shell and move into a big, unfamiliar shell…it takes much longer than you’d think and it’s a pretty amazing process.
Apparently some hermit crabs are all about trying new shells and others are more reluctant. And when they commit to leaving that old shell, they protect themselves for as long as possible before taking the epic risk of exposing themselves while they wiggle their way into an unfamiliar, new space.
Learning anything new requires a step beyond what’s familiar and comfortable. I’ve taught many third graders over the years who love repeated addition, so they would solve 23 x 4 by stacking the number 23 four times and adding the two columns. They’d learn how to use a standard algorithm, but they’d still prefer repeated addition because it was comfortable and it had worked pretty well so far. They wouldn’t voluntarily switch to more efficient strategies until we solved problems more like 34 x 46, which takes a ridiculously long time to solve with repeated addition…believe me.
New shells and new learning feel big, unfamiliar, and really weird at first. When kids expect that new learning will feel weird, that helps. When we challenge kids to think of the weird and the discomfort as an important, maybe even essential part of growing, that helps, too. What if we normalize that life is pretty much just a lot of new shells? We can cling to our old shells, but that limits our growth and shrinks our confidence. Or we can open ourselves to each new shell as an opportunity to build our skill set and become stronger, more confident, and more capable.
And it probably wouldn’t hurt to watch a hermit crab or two…you know, for inspiration. Here’s a link to watch a classroom crab named Sneakers switch to his new shell. Grab your kiddo and enjoy together. They’ll have a little more perspective when it’s time for their next shell.
