Educational Editorials # 4
Educational Editorials # 4
Is It Insurmountable? Your Reply, Please?
It seems that scaling Mount Everest without climbing equipment is an easier task. Facing 4 F's in High School with hopes of removing them from a report card in just a few months is really asking for too much. Yet I am faced with this challenge with regards to some of the students of a Free Tutoring Service.
I can only stand back and wonder how this sad state of affairs came to be. How can any 15-year old make so many F's and still be in High School? What will be the end result of his education in High School? What has transpired in his life to cause this sad state of affairs?
My standards have been lowered in the Tutoring Service to levels that I never dreamed. At first, I wrote admissions' requirements that eliminated such "F's makers". At first, I only sought to tutor the very bright, taking them to heights far beyond their Middle and High School curriculums. And now, I am faced with the realization that once again, my culture stands like a giant behemoth that I must overcome before I begin to climb this mountain.
Too much of being lackadaisical with regards to doing homework. Too much playing and jiving around. Sometimes, the students convince themselves that they are doing just fine when they are failing miserably. The sad thing is, they convince their parents that they are making improvements, when in fact, they are just trying to get by. More Fubus and Jordans loom in the background for them, because the parents really want to believe and to be liked.
What must transpire in the lives of some students to make them want to achieve? Is it their desire to fool me, too? Yet I can tell in a heartbeat, their level of education. I can tell in a heartbeat, their motivation and desire to learn. I can tell in a heartbeat, their future in education.
I will accept the challenge of removing F's from report cards in a few months. I will become the enemy instead of one of the "good old boys". I will become disliked by the student because of my drive and determination, and then I will become disliked by the parent because of my drive and determination. I will "tell it like it is" and my popularity will quickly disappear. Perhaps, one might stretch the imagination and say that the student will remain in the Tutoring Service under such discipline. Perhaps, one might be inclined to believe that I can meet this challenge when one knows of my will and my dedication. I will accept the challenge, even though I know that my culture will stand against me.
My culture stands against me... too often. Too often must I beg and plead for students to come over for tutoring. Too often must I plead with parents to allow me ample time to teach. Too often must students be told by parents that "they need to stay home sometimes" ; for reasons unclear or unknown. Too often are parents jealous of the relationship between tutor and student. Too often are single mothers trying to be mother and father at the same time; to the point that they shut out all others. Common sense out, confrontation in. Too often do some know "how to raise my child and no one is going to tell me anything", be they PhD's, MD's and Psychiatrists, no one is going to tell me how to raise my child. That's my culture speaking. And that is the reason for the "F" student.
Formulating a plan of action is not a simple task. I must abandon all thoughts of compromise and attack the problem head on. I must say "you are one idiotic student for making a mockery of your High School years. You are a pitiful example of a Black teenager. You are ignorant and undisciplined:pure, plain and simple. You are as dumb as they come. You are fooling no one but yourself."
I must say these things as "shock treatment" to bring a sense of reality. I will not be liked, nor do I care to be, until each and every "F" is removed. I must deny the good times that the student might have in the Tutoring Service. I must become the worst "Teacher Nightmare" and for that, I will be totally disliked. I am, after all, a disciplinarian in sheep's clothing.
Today, December 13, 2000, I sat in a tiny restaurant (Black-Owned) in Southwest Los Angeles and treated one of the single mothers to lunch. It would be called "South Central" by most foreigners, since all of South Los Angeles falls under the heading of "South Central". This restaurant had enough seating for only 5 diners and I was unlucky enough to gain one of the seats next to a gentleman who was intent on telling me his life story. My conversation about a student was interrupted and my attention was focused upon the 50-year old, unemployed individual from Chicago who felt the need to interrupt my conversation about mathematics and science to tell me all about his life as a young man. He talked incessantly about his job as a "candy worker in Chicago" and beamed as if he were the head of the company instead of a box- car- loader. This gentleman told of his 6 children and his ex-wife and how he had left them in Chicago to fend for themselves as he made his way to California and as far away from them as he could get. I wonder if he heard any of my conversation about the plight of Black women who are faced with the task of educating children when Black men run out on them. I wonder if he heard any of the unkind things that I said about the Black men who father children and do absolutely nothing to prevent the "F's" from rolling in. No, I believe he was too caught up in self-pity to even hear a word that I was saying. I only hope that the owners of the tiny restaurant heard me when I gave them "thumbs up" for making a go at it of ....The Old American Business World.
I must prepare myself for the challenge ahead. I must convince students that this is no playground or courting ground. "F" is out! This is serious business for me as I have given my life to it. It is my prayer that the parent is patient enough, is knowledgeable enough, or cares enough, to allow me ample time to.....turn this student around. It can, after all, be done... In spite of the culture that stands against me.