complicated adolescent living
Oh, Clifford, how I've missed you! After a few days of forcing myself to be monogamous to Pierre Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice, I finally tonight decided to be weak and succumb to Clifford Geertz's charms - and rereading "Thick Description" in The Interpretation of Cultures is so lovely. Sigh. Don't get me wrong - I have a big ole crush on Pierre and his activism in a smart way, but when it takes me an hour to get through 10 pages and barely understand - well, it's time for a boy on the side for me.
Today I was talking to a kid. He's a great kid, doing well in class, but he asked how long it would take to graduate - he needs like 185 credits more - he failed his first two years of high school and then dropped out last year. Um, hello?! If you don't have any credits, it takes you a long time to graduate?! And he's totally frustrated by that because he needs to work full-time to make the house payment because his mother is in prison.
And I don't know what to say. I tell him not to drop out, but is that really in his best interests? I mean, at least he's not drunk at school (he has hangovers on occasion).
Ugh. When did life get so complicated for kids? I know, it's always been that way - I was just shielded more.
I have this other kid who came just a few weeks ago, so he can't even get any credit for his work (you can only miss 8 days at my school, and he came on the 9th). He works his butt off - I have him for two classes - and he's cool. He's started teasing me, but the timing is a little off. And we're not tight, so I don't know the stories, but there are a gazillion in his family I can tell from looking at his school records - I'm guessing illegal immigration, prison time, homelessness, etc. He's never been in a school long enough to finish a class - he's I think 18 and only has 15 credits. You need 210 to graduate from a continuation high school, 225 from a regular one I think. But he won't graduate from high school, which limits his opportunities in a huge way.
I want to think that both those boys will be ok without high school diplomas, but I just want to keep them near me and protect them and make everything right in their worlds - and of course I can't even make class fun for them. (I'm a sucky teacher. I'm so boring, I hate showing up everyday to my class. I'm trying to just follow the curriculum this year, but it's so boring I'm ready to ditch 8 days and not get credit. The only thing I got going for me is I really do care about the kids, and they can tell.)
Back to Cliff. He da man.
Today I was talking to a kid. He's a great kid, doing well in class, but he asked how long it would take to graduate - he needs like 185 credits more - he failed his first two years of high school and then dropped out last year. Um, hello?! If you don't have any credits, it takes you a long time to graduate?! And he's totally frustrated by that because he needs to work full-time to make the house payment because his mother is in prison.
And I don't know what to say. I tell him not to drop out, but is that really in his best interests? I mean, at least he's not drunk at school (he has hangovers on occasion).
Ugh. When did life get so complicated for kids? I know, it's always been that way - I was just shielded more.
I have this other kid who came just a few weeks ago, so he can't even get any credit for his work (you can only miss 8 days at my school, and he came on the 9th). He works his butt off - I have him for two classes - and he's cool. He's started teasing me, but the timing is a little off. And we're not tight, so I don't know the stories, but there are a gazillion in his family I can tell from looking at his school records - I'm guessing illegal immigration, prison time, homelessness, etc. He's never been in a school long enough to finish a class - he's I think 18 and only has 15 credits. You need 210 to graduate from a continuation high school, 225 from a regular one I think. But he won't graduate from high school, which limits his opportunities in a huge way.
I want to think that both those boys will be ok without high school diplomas, but I just want to keep them near me and protect them and make everything right in their worlds - and of course I can't even make class fun for them. (I'm a sucky teacher. I'm so boring, I hate showing up everyday to my class. I'm trying to just follow the curriculum this year, but it's so boring I'm ready to ditch 8 days and not get credit. The only thing I got going for me is I really do care about the kids, and they can tell.)
Back to Cliff. He da man.
posted by NOLA at 6:52 PM
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