Take Me Out To the Ball Game - Teaching Responsibility (Charter School Diaries #20)

Week 5/20 – 5/24

When you work with children, there is never a dull moment. I may be repeating myself, but it is a very true phrase. It is because children do some foolish things. At times, it can be funny and other times, it can be very serious. When you are dealing with high schoolers, they often walk a fine line between the funny and the serious. Many times, they are bass ackwards: they take the light-hearted things too seriously and the things that they should take serious, they don’t take serious enough. Of course, teenagers do not have the slightest idea on how to approach most situations in the best way. Many teenagers are very intelligent and have lots of knowledge, but the mastery of knowledge is when one can properly apply it. Whether or not the execution of knowledge is done with good versus evil intentions is an entirely different discussion altogether.

Discerning these things, integrity and knowledge application, can be tough for any teenage. Nevertheless, our students have got to understand that we live in a completely different age where what they say or do can and will be used against them. When I was in high school, all you had to worry about was word of mouth and maybe a security camera. Now, technology makes capturing any compromising moment almost a guarantee. I had classmates who smoked weed in the student parking lot all the time; some students smoked cigarettes in the bathroom stall. I wonder what would have happened if there was Instagram back then…

Moment of the Week

Now, I appreciate the passion of some of my teacher colleagues when it comes to the sports here at my school, but some individuals walk around like they coach a division one team; regardless of the sport – kids are pulled out of classes, they get away with more than usual and that is common in many schools. Also, that our charter mandates an 8am to 4pm schedule complicates things further, since other schools get out earlier. This time of year, it is baseball’s turn to rule the day. The city of Camden has a triple-A baseball team and the general manager sits on our school’s board of trustees. Between him and the baseball coach, someone had the bright idea to invite both of our high schools to a baseball game this past Tuesday afternoon. To make matters worse, we were staying longer because our high school team played a game immediately after that… mix in hundreds of other high school students and you have complete and utter chaos.

Personally, once we arrived, I told the students under my watch to not kill each other and to be back at the end of the game; there was no point in “corralling” them. Shortly before the game was ended, I sat down with one of my students and she was telling me about how she hates herself and how she tried to end her own life. She specifically showed me the marks on her arms where she tried to cut her wrists a few months ago. I was so sad when she told me and so I tried to pour some life into her. At around the same time, a 9^th and 11^th grade student snuck away to smoke, either weed or a Black (Black and Mild Cigar) under the hidden bleachers in the stadium during the game. Today, on the heels of giving my Freshmen a speech about watching their pictures posted on Facebook or Instagram due to one of my students having an internet meme created with a picture of her, in addition to the administrators one-upping each other with patting themselves on the back from Tuesday’s “successful” trip, one of my colleagues showed me an Instagram picture on his phone of the 9^th and 11^th grader smoking in the bleachers from Tuesday. The 9^th grader proudly smoked an “O” into the camera and the 11^th grader blocked her face from view, although I could recognize her hand and her face. Somehow, it reached our school’s founder and board of trustees’ chairwoman. Needless to say, heads will roll on Tuesday when we arrive back at school.

Lesson of the Week

I reiterated to my students today, if they learn nothing else from me, they are to remember that Mr. Miller told them that as they glide into the stupid zone, they are to stop and think prior to entering… The stakes are raised higher than ever before; in a world where our economy is faltering and the privileged are hoarding all resources, there are very limited resources and opportunities for many of our urban and rural students – the competition for careers and colleges is fierce and any little speed bump can turn into a roadblock. All students must realize the dangers of social networking, but those without the resources to clean up the messes they've made are at a greater risk for paying a greater price. As a teacher, it is my job to be real with my students: understand who they are and they will make mistakes, while at the same time imparting upon them the wisdom to make the right decisions when confronted with good and bad choices. We are more than teachers, we are guardians…

Some of us have our own children; when we send our kids to school, we want our values of integrity, responsibility and hard work to be reinforced in the classroom. Who are we not to provide the same reinforcement to those children that we teach whose parents desire us to be powerful in the lives of their children, to back them up? And even if a parent may not know any better, you owe it to that child to step in the role of the parent during the 5 to 7 hours that child is in your presence. Many teachers don’t want to hear that, but you cannot have it both ways… Sure, you are the parent to your kids and you will instill your beliefs and values, but you certainly wouldn't leave your child with people who pour junk into the spirit of your child for a third of the day… Do unto others… parent those children, because we’ll either pay now or we’ll pay later.