A Crazy Friday, A Lazy Saturday
Currently listening to: Waterloo Sunset, by Jon Brion. Hmmm…this is about the 6th or so blog posting with my new jump-starter method…commenting about the first randomized song I happen to play in iTunes. So far, I’ve been really lucky and have gotten some of the best of the best…including this favorite of mine. I know that I’ve posted about Jon Brion before (see February 10, April 8, and April 19), but this is an absolutely gorgeous track. Originally a song by the British group The Kinks, Jon Brion is able to successfully re-imagine this song with nothing more than his minimalist electric guitar and his (clearly straining) voice. Absolutely haunting. Absolutely gorgeous!
Anyway, Friday wound up being crazy day, a constant reminder of the paradoxes of life, kids, LA, and the intriguing combination of the three. To make a long story short, I present this in a series of Good News / Bad News dichotomies.
- Good News: Some of my kids did amazing on the Unit 3 district assessment in Algebra! This is in spite of the fact that it was a ridiculously difficult test! I would have liked to have more kids do better, but about 50 kids scored in the ‘Proficient’ or ‘Advanced’ categories. As a reward, I throw a pizza/movie party for the kids who score Proficient or Advanced, (or show improvement since the last assessment). So after school on Friday, I had 20 pizzas delivered and we watched Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
in one of the classrooms that has built in stadium seating! Lot’s of fun. - Bad News: In the darkened theatre, one of my kids tagged on 15 of the desks.
- Good News: Another teacher and I had a suspicion as to who it was and after a long discussion with the kid, he came clean and owned up to it.
- Bad News: More clearly now than ever I am seeing the horrific effects of peer pressure on kids in my school and the associated chain of influence. Friday’s tagger, J_______ is really a good kid, who may be slightly withdrawn at times, but is very polite and even tries hard in a difficult algebra class. The very sad (and very frightening) thing is he’s clearly influenced by another student of mine E________, who is also a pretty good kid, although slightly more withdrawn, and slightly more bold when it comes to risky behavior, who is in turn influenced by K______, a former student of mine who is very bold, very defiant, yet is somehow manages to avoid expulsion. And to top it all off K_____ now hangs out with frequently truant and frequently suspended A______, who, although my optimism in people hates to say it, gives me about 15 reasons to believe that if he’s not a “banger” yet, is right on the cusp of becoming one. A______ to K_______ to E________ to J_______. It’s really sad how much the sway of one student who is out of control trickles down to those who are naïve, bored, or lonely! This is one of the things that the more I think about, the more upset I get!
- Epilogue: Ironically, nowhere was this dichotomy of hope and despair presented than this very morning. After sleeping in until 7:30 J, I grabbed an Egg- McMuffin from my local heart disease store and headed to my neighborhood park to read a little. After having been there no more than 15 minutes, a group of 5 high school students from nearby L.A. High sat down at one of the tables and began a group study session for what sounded like a ROTC test. I quickly became aware that one of these students was one of mine from two years ago and is now a sophomore apparently doing very well in HS and especially in the ROTC program! I was so proud of her. Not five minutes later, as the high-schoolers continued to study and I continued to read, a group of three borderline hungover twenty-somethings sat at the other adjacent picnic table, and rather than studying for any sort of academic pursuit, began promptly smoking some marijuana. I look at my watch….It’s 9:00am in Los Angeles. Oh what a strange, strange city.
Themocracy
I feel your pain my friend. After being in education for nearly 10 years, I have seen the same trickle down effect on the kids. I don’t get angry though…it saddens me!!! Because for some reason, these children don’t have the love, support and attention that leads them in the right direction. As a lost child, you’ll look for ANYTHING to make you feel better about yourself, even if that means gangs or drugs! That’s why it’s vital that we as educators communicate with our children, and let them know that not only do we care about their progress in our content but the we TRULY do care about there well being!
Hang in there Kyle!!!!