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One Student Taught Me How to be a Teacher

Mark Eckel
@MarkEckel
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When I first started teaching in 1983, “classroom discipline” was much different than it is now. A young seventh-grade boy was, in my estimation, quite recalcitrant in class. I arranged as “discipline” that he come to my house early on a Saturday morning to rake leaves.

His mom dropped him off and we proceeded to rake. All the while we talked. I had also promised him breakfast when we were finished. Like in the yard, we chatted over our eggs and toast. I arranged with the mom that I would drive him back home. And we talked.

But then I noticed, little by little, the closer we got to his location, he began to quiet. Arriving at the destination, the car silent now, I saw his house. It was a little mobile home trailer that couldn’t have had more than one bedroom. The car rolled to a stop. He opened the door and, without a word, got out.

I paused in the space until he entered the trailer. And I remember then as I remember now mixed feelings of sadness, shame, compassion, and resolve. Never again would I assess a young person by their actions in my classroom without also considering their background, parentage, home life, or surroundings.

[First published at MarkEckel.com]

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Discussion (4)

  • Quintus Sertorius@BillGollier

    This is outstanding; thanks so so much for sharing!!! For one it takes us away from the loud noise of national politics and The buffoonery/non seriousness of our political class (Democratic and Republican) and commentary class (on both sides) and shows real life. Second as a former teacher it really made me think of my career…I tried to live up to this maxim but as I look back I realize how much I failed…oh there were successes for sure but in the end more could have been done. Finally while I am happy with my decision to leave the profession (the final straw being called out for teaching Thomas Sowell) this small post did make me think I maybe should have stayed and fought the good fight for a few more years. Thank you for providing me with self reflection!!!

  • EODmom@EODmom
    Thank you for this graceful description and reminder of the complexity of children. I think it’s also a reminder that children are not “done” while they are in one classroom for one year, or on one team for one season or any other situation one can think of encountering them. Children need adults to listen and talk and attend over and over. One day or one year or one talk might not “fix” something, but it can very well make a difference. You just don’t know what it will be to make the difference.
  • Linus Poindexter@LinusPoindexter

    Good post. I just retired from teaching at a small university that has a lot of non-traditional students (i.e. they are older than what people think of as "college kids".) We faculty would often be exasperated when students, non-trad or not, were late with assignments, homework, etc. until we realized that the person was also holding down a full-time job and/or taking care of kids and/or etc.

    Our job as faculty was to take the student from where they started to as far as they could go given the constraints of their lives. Our job was not to "weed out" weaker students; that almost always took care of itself without any help from us. Weeding out is what too many big schools do.