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I don't usually write about my students, because I can't tell you much about them without violating confidentiality. Today I'm going to break my own rule, albeit cautiously. On Thursday, I was observed by a nice young lady doing her teaching practicum. (This means she sits in lots of classrooms and writes a big report about what she saw.) She'll be student teaching in the fall. As she was leaving, she commented on what a nice bunch of kids my eighth graders are. She added something else about how our kids came from such a great neighborhood, and that it must be wonderful to work with kids from good homes and nice families. I'm afraid I looked at her very oddly. The class in question contains 25 kids. They're approximately 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Filipino/Hispanic/polyracial/other. They are beautiful, happy kids. They are alert, intelligent, and polite. They laugh, joke, and smile a lot. They are somewhat lazy, but I love them. This class also contains one kid with a substance abuse problem, two foster kids, one kid whose dad is in and out of prison, two being raised by grandparents, seven on medication for ADD/ADHD, two who have been raped or sexually abused, one on antidepressants, three with learning disabilities, and one who stutters.One from this class was expelled for arson last week, and two are out on long-term suspension for assault and battery. Only eight of these kids are living in two-parent homes. Many of them divide time between Mom's house and Dad's place. Most of them live in the lower-middle-class neighborhood to the south of my school, where drive-by shootings are common. There are three large gangs active in this neighborhood. Two of my kids are members. One is a girl. This little microcosm of American social problems is a fairly typical suburban public school classroom. I've been teaching groups of kids just like these for fifteen years. My former students include five cops, a Navy commander, two doctors, a Russian linguist, two paramedics, three teachers, a Shakespearean stage actor, a pharmacist, a bunch of nurses, and a lot of young moms and dads. I also taught two guys currently serving prison time for murder, a football player who was killed while robbing a liquor store, a rapist, several drug dealers, and two suicides. These are just the ones I know about. They all seemed like really nice kids, every one of them, and I loved them all. Today's good read: Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts--sappy, funny, and gorgeously written Headbone selection: Celebration--is it Kool and the Gang? Heard it in a shoe store today--and overheard a teenager saying, "Mom! It's the Celebrex song!" |
 
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My Little Paradise