I left school today at 3:55 - probably the second earliest time I've left all year (we get out at 3:30). It was raining pretty good, but I had my sights set on catching the field events of the City Championships for middle school track - we have one kid competing in the high jump. Only three minutes into my drive, I see a sixth grader, who is not one of my students but who I chill with during dismissal, standing at a bus stop. I pull into a parking lot, offer him a ride - it was pouring rain after all - and then start the trek to his house.
I continually had to remind myself that, despite this kid's size (5'10" and 200+), he's a sixth grader and doesn't really drive around, and, subsequently, doesn't really know how to drive back to his house. Turns out his apartment was a good 15-20 minutes away, so it makes sense he wasn't familiar with every road. He said his family lived so far away from school because they had been robbed twice, which led to him moving three times this year, and changing schools once. He's going to change schools next year, too.
Before pulling in to the apartment complex, he told me to let him off at the entrance. It was still raining and I insisted on taking him all the way home, rather than having him walk. The drive through the complex made the last part of our ride together a bit awkward - I think he felt a bit embarrassed to be taking a teacher back to his home. It wasn't the nicest apartment complex - the roads through it were littered with giant potholes and the apartment buildings themselves looked like the other neglected apartment complexes I've seen around Memphis. When he was getting out, he told me I was a 'nice person'.
Sometimes I forget my kids' home lives (this wasn't one of my kids, but he's Hispanic) - but at the same time, when kids are at school, I think they forget them too. Driving this kid home was just totally different than talking to him after school - he was dejected, didn't smile much, and wasn't joking around. The only reason he didn't move to a third school this year was because his mother didn't want him failing.
This kid is also the same kid who was being talked down to the other day during dismissal. With the kid standing right there, one of his teacher's was telling me how he needs to be tested for SPED because he got 'all circles on TCAP'. I was surprised that the math teacher was saying this stuff in front of the kid, but didn't really come to the kid's defense. Most of the time poor performance on standardized tests is due to stuff other than a kid needing to be tested for SPED. Yesterday, I talked to the kid and told him how I thought what the math teacher saying was total crap.
After dropping the kid off, I spent 15 minutes or so driving around southeast Memphis making wrong turns. At one point, I got off of an exit I thought would go North on 240, when it actually made this gigantic loop over the whole expressway and went South again. I tried to catch the field events of City Champs, but couldn't find the track. Apparently, the "Fairgrounds" is a different place than the place where they have the Mid-South Fair and a track right by the Liberty Bowl. That, or today's portion of the meet was canceled because of the weather.
During school I also me with the parent and sister of a student who I had suspended because of his ludicrous behavior during TCAP (state tests) this week. To me, this kid, who I'll call Juan, said, "Are you scared? Do you want to take it outside?" and "I'm finna shoot somebody." Juan is a total joker whose behavior all of the teachers dislike. Naturally, all of the Hispanic students (and many of the black girls) at the school adore him for his comedy routines in class and his cocksure lifestyle.
Juan's father asked to get the suspension down to two days so that he would not have to miss a third day of work. He left work to come in and meet about Juan's suspension and was lucky he could get off for a bit because of today's rain. Juan's father looked worn out. He kept putting his head down, raising and lowering his hands in exasperation, and speaking in a tone I knew (even though it was in Spanish) was that of a parent who didn't have a solution. His sister, who is only 18 but not in school, looked more relaxed but not shocked to be back in the principal's office (apparently she took care of his other suspensions). Juan said he was 'just playing' with another student - I told him I knew it was directed at me.
After the translator left the room, I sat there and listened to Juan, his sister, and his father argue about something in Spanish. The desperate-sounding back and forth between the three made me regret my words from a run with Karl two days ago. Because Juan was being his usual teacher-aggravating self, I had confessed to Karl,"I'd be ok with Juan being arrested and deported."
Listening to Juan's dejected father try to convince Juan to change his behavior helped me remember Juan's a kid living a tough life, in a foreign country, at a place he detests (school), and in an environment where teachers usually make sure he fails (even though he's a smart dude, I think his language proficiency has really hurt him in class). Rather than wanting Juan deported, I think I just want him to realize his talents (intellect + ability to make people like him [thought not teachers, generally]) could be used to do good things.
14 years ago