It's been about three months now since I started co-teaching at Hostos Community College. I've been learning a lot as I've been going about teaching, about writing, about the system, and about my students. One thing I've been noticing is that these are the very people that Mike Rose wrote a book on, the lives on the boundary. The ones who have been failing reading and writing, the ones who are misunderstood, the ones who are dedicated to learning but are often misrepresented by the "system."
There is one boy in my afternoon class, let's call him "George". For some reason, I feel like he thinks he's still in high school. The way he acts as a student and as a classmate. He just doesn't take responsibility. He sits in class (if he ever makes it on time) and after numerous "warnings" by the CUNY Start director and the lead teacher, he still manages to tease and bully a student in our class who by the way has a learning disability. He just continues to do half-a**ed jobs on the homeworks and CATW papers. In fact, the most recent CATW I read from him looked exactly like what he wrote when we first took the test from the class as an assessment, not at all following the outline we have provided for the class, no improvement basically!
So my lead teacher has decided to kick him out of the program officially. He has already had so many warnings and has failed to make any progress in anything. Though at first I was very upset with her decision trying to say that isn't he exactly one of those "lives on the boundary"? And shouldn't we, as compassionate teachers, be willing to work hard to hear him out? Maybe he just comes from a background that you and I can't understand. But, after further investigation and much thought and reflection on my part, I realized that perhaps this must be in his best interest. The truth is, we've already been giving a lot of chances to him and he hasn't made much progress at all no matter how much we tried to reason with him. The problem now is not only him but the fact that he ruins the dynamic of the class by distracting others and teasing a classmate as I mentioned before. Perhaps after he leaves this program, he will learn more to appreciate the chances that are given to him!
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Mah, I know how you feel. I find that I want to focus on the ones that aren't ready, or interested or are just not in the right place.I want to see if I can make them get it. Then they do something that makes me snap out of it, like pick on someone they perceive of as weak or different. Then if one "George" is disrupting the entire class, we have to put his immaturity in the balance against his classmates' willingness. And in the classroom, willingness will always win.
ReplyDeleteMahla, that was a tough call but it sounds like there wasn't much else to do. I guess the important thing is to let the student know he's welcomed back if and when he's ready to handle the work. But I hear your concerns about this issue. I was also a kid on the boundary and for that reason I didn't go to college to get my BA till I was 44 years old. Anyway, I think the kid will be back when he's ready in a few... or even several years. You might've done him a favor in letting him go, so he could get back sooner. Let's hope so anyway. Or else, he may discover he really doesn't want to come back to school, but instead become a business man or have his own business. Acadamia/school is not for everyone and besides it doesn't have the same value it once had. Today one needs a masters, and even then, the returns are not what they used to be. There are other alternatives.
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