Genus and Species

Stephanie, the Logic teacher on my middle school team, filled me with great delight the other day when I saw a reference to genus and species in her lesson plans. We did that! My girls and I – when I made a rather lame attempt at walking them through a beginning Logic curriculum while we homeschooled – we learned to define things by genus and species!

Here’s the gist: one way of creating a definition for something is to state the group it belongs to (the genus) and  the things that distinguish it from the other members of that group (its species).

Sadness: that’s an emotion [genus] in reaction to a loss [species].

Baseball: that’s a ball game [genus] where you hit a ball with a bat and run around bases to score points [species].

Rocky Road: that’s a flavor of ice cream [genus] with a chocolate base that has nuts and marshmallows folded in [species].

This appeals, I think, to both the organizing-fanatic side of my brain and the celebrate-uniqueness side of my brain. Give everything a category – check. But let it stand out within that category in all its distinctive splendor.

This is one of the fun things about teaching middle schoolers. I love helping my students discover how God defines them: where they belong in the world and how he made them different from everyone else. Elaina is picture smart: she draws beautiful images of what’s in her mind . . . and she’s learning to do it with words, too. J.R. is people smart: he would be a great politician or salesman. Peyton figured out in a learning styles assessment today that he is a social learner. Which explains so much about that boy.

The teenage years are famous as a time when everyone wants to “fit in”, to find their genus. A handful of those who fail at this task compensate by exaggerating their species – they maximize their outcast state and make it their identity. And often, that makes them suddenly the cool one . . . which means others want to be like them, and a new genus is created. (Goth? Emo? Cases in point.)

My girls are still in that age where they are defining themselves. Who am I? What am I here to do? How did God make me different from everyone else and why – what am I supposed to do with those differences? 

But here’s what’s interesting: the older I get, the more my life situation changes, the more I am defining (or maybe redefining) myself, too. Who am I? Now that I’m not wife-ing and in-house-mothering, what am I here to do? What does God have in mind for me next? So, maybe the genus/species thing can help me out here.

I belong to several genera (that’s the plural of “genus”, folks – I looked it up). I am a Christian . . . I am a woman . . . I am an American . . . I am a mother . . . I am a divorcee, and a teacher, and a writer, and a theatre person . . . and all of these define me to a degree.

But what sets me apart from everyone else in these categories? Let’s see . . .

I’m an English teacher [genus] who specifically excels at teaching basic word skills (vocabulary, grammar) and thinking skills (main idea, elaboration, inferences), making them accessible and entertaining for her middle school students [species].

Maybe? I think.

Give it a shot, ya'll. What are your genera? And what is your species within each genus? This is fun, yes? And certainly a worthwhile endeavor. Discovering yourself -- figuring out how God made you different and what he might want you to do with that.  I mean, it's worthwhile to lead young people through this process, but also worthwhile to do yourself. It's much easier to make decisions about your life (big and small) when you recognize who God made you to be. 

I enjoy this stuff way too much. If you can't find me sometime in the next couple weeks, I may be hanging out in Stephanie's Logic class . . .