March 20th, 2009
My Day In School
I just finished up my two periods of speaking to local 8th grade students. I think they thought I was dull and boring – no surprise there, but hopefully they at least consider what I had to say. Sadly, a few kids in both classes clearly had zero interest in what I was saying but the large majority at least seemed like they were paying attention which was refreshing.
The school actually breaks the classes down by gender so my first class was all boys (about 15) and the second was all girls (about the same size). I had not known schools did this – or even could do it – so it was a little weird when the first class all sat down and I realized there were no girls. At the end of the period the teacher told me they were separated by gender. I asked him about it after I finished my presentation to the girls class and he said it is a new endeavor they just started this year. He said in the past girls have intentionally “dumbed” themselves down in the mixed gender classes and the boys puff themselves up to show off. Thus, historically, on the achievement tests in this school the girls have outscored the boys. Now he says his girl classes are outperforming the boys but sadly it isn’t just because the girls are just living up to their potential (their scores have gone up) but the boys have stopped trying to show off (their scores have gone down).
Most of the kids in this school come from pretty lower income families so I tried to personalize my presentation as much as possible explaining that financial hardship shouldn’t be an excuse they use to under-perform later in life. I told them that there are tons of sources of money out there for kids who do good in high school and want some form of post-secondary education (be it college, trade/technical school etc). Overall I told them that this is their chance to start to take control of their lives; that it is their responsibility to do their best in high school because, after they graduate if they find themselves in a crummy dead-end job they will only have themselves to blame.
At the end I asked both groups what they wanted to do when they were adults. It seems the career field of “i dunno” will be well staffed! Well, seriously, I didn’t expect them to know. However it was cool that at least five of the boys said they planned on going to college and the four or five girls who responded all mentioned jobs that would require additional education. One of the boys said he wanted to do what I do so I gave his teacher my work contact info so if the kid ever had a question he could ask me. One of the girls had recently changed her plans from being a masseuse to being a counselor so I mentioned to her that was great; my mom switched her career later in life to do that very thing.
I don’t know if any of the kids will actually change their plans or approach to high school based on my presentation but I hope they at least give my words some thought.
I can also say that I think these kids have a good social studies teacher. While he had one habit I didn’t like his overall approach and obvious interest in the kids lives and success is more than obvious. I would not be surprised if he is the kind of teacher that turns some kids around towards a more successful life. His rapport with the students instantly reminded me of my 7th grade social studies teacher who got me fired up about learning in school and really changed my entire perspective.
Overall I’m very glad I gave the presentation and I would definitely do it again. I was, admittedly, a little nervous with the first class but I suppose that is to be expected. I think, if I ever get to do it again that I’ll try to find ways to make the presentation even more compelling and try to draw the kids into the conversation more. While I saw some obvious facial signs that they were stunned by some of the things I said, it would have been cool to have engaged them a bit more. The neatest thing was that most of these kids seemed really nice and that they almost all seemed to get along as a group. I don’t remember such camaraderie in middle school. Of course maybe I was in that little group that didn’t seem to get along with the group?