Seventh grade lives 1

I've spent so much time complaining about the behavior of these boys that I don't think I have adequately conveyed how charming and likable they are.  I'd like to share a couple of brief glimpses into their lives.  Today a small group of students ended up in my room at lunch.  They were all good students, and small boys.  They just wanted to use the computers.  I asked them why they didn't want to go outside for lunch.  One of them, an especially small and very soft spoken boy, said something like, "There's too much going on out there at lunch.  There are mean kids and bullies and we'd rather be in here."  Hard to argue with that.

Later in the day another boy was talking to his friends in an intense way. Other boys really like this boy because he's funny and clever and outspoken, although that can make him a little disruptive in class.  He said that he had a big problem--a claim supported by his friends--and would like to tell me about it.  While we were walking out to play basketball during advisory period, he said that his father had been picked up the night before and was going to be deported.  One of his friends walking with us said that had happened to him once too.  I said that must be really terrible and that I was sorry to hear it.

We didn't talk much more since he wanted to play basketball, but I was left with a sad feeling. I have a hard time imagining just how terrible it must be at age 12 to have your father snatched away from you all of a sudden.  It seems that any decent version of  "family values" would allow for fathers to stay with their sons.  This incident definitely puts a human face on the increasingly shrill calls to deport increasing numbers of people, many of them fathers who are needed by their sons.

As I get to know these boys, I expect to hear more stories about their lives.  I'm glad I'm not so obsessed with controlling their behavior that I don't stop to listen to their individual voices.  Vignettes like these surely lie at the heart of the teaching experience.  They are probably the reason we put up with the impossible work load and time requirements of the job.