First Day of School at a Charter School

Wow. I think this could be the most difficult thing I've done in long a time. I had one kid who just wanted to challenge everything I said: he didn't have to sit down, he didn't have to work on his assessment, and he didn't have to stop talking to his friends and get to work right now. Wow. I almost sent him to the office. I think, however, there must be a different way. After a while, I sat down next to him and started pointing out problems for him to do, and that was helpful, because then he actually did it.

There must be something to do about a kid who only wants to challenge a teacher. Perhaps the point is just to move on sooner and allow him to get bored. Yeah, that's it. Remember the story of Beebop? She didn't understand that secret smile, but she eventually got her act together.

One student brought up an interesting concept: One must earn a person's respect. He talked about how the world of gangs and street talking and fighting worked, saying that a man's respect is huge.

There are so many issues in inner-city schools: The #1 issue the students and even teachers pointed to today was lack of money. Students in my class were saying that the only reason we tutors were there was because the school would lose its funding if the students didn't all pass the Arizona Standardized Test. So these students are indignant because they think that I am only there for my own benefit. My initial response, in layman's terms, would be: Grow the f*ck up!

However, excellent teachers clearly bestow far more knowledge than can be found in books as they coax their charges forth into the world of responsibility. With that, simple challenges such as these can be met with the shear confidence that comes from greater experience and knowledge that for all every erratic teenage impulse, there is a sliver of simple truth that anyone may garner. Our choices are more basic than they seem, yet our control is far less than we imagine. And for any anger set ready to explode on all sides, a lot of loving water passes through the network of canals, running through the desert.