First education article: First Experience with At-Risk Youth

This is my first education article. Currently, I'm doing my English, Secondary Ed. internship the semester before I student teach. All three of the classes I normally observe are high performing 12th grade (AP English, video production and English 4). So that I may have a rounded view on the education process, I observe other classes during the video production class. I don't have my notes in front of me about this experience, but I anticipate a sequel article.

Yesterday I went to sleep not wanting to be a teacher. Today I also woke up not wanting to be a teacher. Not a strong "get me out of here" feeling, but just a feeling of frustration.



Today, I spent some time observing an at-risk kids class during my internship. They were all in the younger years of high school, all there for different reasons. The things I noticed at first quickly changed into "things I noticed most," and my note taking went quickly from classroom management techniques to off-the-cuff remarks.

To skip ahead a little, when I first got to speak to their teacher (an amazing educator), she told me that everyone in the class had either been to juvenile detention centers or had some family issue (typically drug addiction or extreme poverty it sounded like), and were considered the most likely to drop out.

Their first activity was a free-write about what it was going to mean to be an adult soon and what was exciting or frightening about becoming an adult. Most of them responded with the answers you'd expect from their age group:not having to be told what to do as a positive, and living on your own as a negative.

"Getting out of _________ county." (I'm not going to be able to give any specifics on the details of my internship because of student/school confidentiality reasons).

For many reasons I can relate to that statement. I heard it many times throughout my teen years from various people I knew, that never seemed to be able to make good on their words. One of the things I was praised for when I first moved was something along the lines of "Mike, every day people are complaining about this place, but the second you started complaining you did something about it and I respect that." I'm not sure who said that, I have a feeling it was a girl. If that was you, thanks. However, I remember being so unsatisfied with where I was that I had to pack up and leave, and that student saying that really brought me back.

I can't remember the context of this statement other than it wasn't what the teacher was looking for but, when asked about transitions and how "they got here" this exchange occurred.

Teacher: How did you all get to where you are now?
Student: We all hate school.
Teacher: Thats not really a transition...
Student: It's religion.
Teacher: I don't think it's religion either.

Maybe it is? Not to call the teacher out, but perhaps it is.

Anyway, one of the things the students had been working on were looking up careers online and whether or not the choices were making could make those dreams a reality.

I was shocked that half the boys wanted to be aero-space engineers. I'm not even entirely sure what that is, but I can tell you it's probably about as far from English as anything. A few were sort of archetypal. The one that stuck out to me most was a kid that was probably 10 years younger than me wanting to be a Marine infantryman. That sort of blew me away. I've only nearly joined the military twice and both times for having no idea where I was going in life.

Then the heartbreak came, the teacher asked about how they got here step by step, by transitions they made or by choices others made. Drug abuse, alcoholism, continually moving from place to place, and parental neglect were all prominent themes. Parental hatred also seemed to play a big role in these kids lives.

During this assignment I also marked down my transitions and though I've had a lot of them most of them have been positive and by my own doing. (Though there was a funny part where it went something like: Job 1, Job 2, no Job, Job 3, Job 1 again).

During this segment the teacher talked to me about her philosophy, and I noted several quotes and drawings around the room made by students. One quote suggested she was wasting her time, another that if it wasn't for this "Second family" they didn't know where they would be. In spite of myself I felt a little overwhelmed, and over my head.

She then asked 2 students working on another assignment to show me the website they all worked on for the school as a school news of sorts. It was nothing short of fantastic. She had told me that these were all lower performers, but the site was well made and the main student I spoke to showed technical prowess far beyond what I possess. He seemed very pleased with their progress on the site and was extremely happy to be receiving praise from me (not because I'm anything special, but students know I'm attending appstate).

After this I was offered a soda and popcorn because they were all celebrating something (sadly I didn't catch what). She then asked more about their careers and a student talked about dropping out to pursue music and how it wasn't that hard to make it. I smirked and raised my hand. The teacher said she saw the wheels work in my head and invited me to share.

I explained a little bit of the story of my being in a punk band, and how we tried to make it work so hard even though it just wouldn't. I detailed working in factories and call centers in order to play shows on the weekend and how it ended up being hard work, for little return. I also explained about how I'm graduating 2 years late, because my work in music didn't translate into academic success in community college.

We then talked about changing what you want to be when you grow up. The teacher asked if I had any interesting career choices. I started off with my earliest real choices (I guess I probably should have brought up lion tamer):

Software Engineer, Teacher (finding out what they make), Musician, Tattoo Artist, Businessman, Marine, Businessman again, Teacher again.

It was an eye opening class period. I felt a sort of connection to these kids, and some of them reminded me of younger versions of people I know. I don't know what the moral of this post is, but I don't want to see these kids (or any kids) fall through the cracks.