💾 Archived View for midnight.pub › posts › 767 captured on 2022-04-29 at 12:35:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I had such a wonderful math remediation encounter with a 7th grader, yesterday!
She's on the overly quiet side, so I was a little surprised she'd signed up for an afternoon remediation slot.
But we got to talking on the walk from the class I'd removed her from to my math/compsci room.
Next thing I know, we've covered the math questions, how she should proceed in the new semester, probability/odds, how if you're *gonna* gamble you may as well be as mathematically smart about it as the casino's mathematicians (emphasizing "so at least you know in advance exactly how and how much they're gypping you over the long haul), Chrome keyboard shortcuts (it's amazing how such become so second nature you start falsely assuming everyone knows 'em), and finally some somber mutual acknowledgements of just how eff'd (I think I used the word 'difficult' lest parental units descend as venomously as a liberal media journalist on any human act they consider beneath their almighty self-righteousness..) this seeming world of self and others can be.
If only so many as 11% of the students were as much a joy to interact with!
In fact, I'd call a solid 10% *demonic*, the next 40% merely (by comparison with the previous) subhuman, and next 40% dumber than a proverbial box of rocks a male dog lifted a leg to....
I'd be in that last 40% hehe. I had a teacher who used to bully me in maths, call me stupid in front of everyone, was strict about presentation (not one my strong suits), and would rank our seating arrangements by homework grades.
I used to dread his classes, and recall a particular parents-teachers night where he loudly announced to the room that he was putting me down into a lower set and replacing me with another student. My mother and I begged him not to and he relented, but the bullying increased.
The new student turned out to not be better than me, despite being a clear favourite, and he was put back into the lower set. The teacher now realised he'd have to try a different approach to push up the tail end of the class: encouragement.
And.... it worked. Slowly I began to trust that he was on my side, my learning improved, and I was even putting in effort for the presentation. I still wasn't in the top 10, but I was in the top 20 and that was good enough for both me and him.
Before my exams I remember walking side by side with him down an empty corridor and told him I that he should know I was going to get the top grade, and I remember him saying he already knew.
Looking back on that now, I think it was an eye-opening experience for both of us. He wasn't trying to bully me for the sake of bullying, he was genuinely trying to help me using old schoolmaster tactics, but when they failed, he tried a different approach. I still think he was a bit of a cunt, but I do respect him for his efforts.
I get that you're probably burned out as a teacher, but as somebody who used to be one of the demonic 10% I'd like you to bear in mind that none of the kids are paid to be there, have a say in whether they go to school at all let alone which school they attend, and if they aren't happy they're expected to just suck it up and deal. The kids that act out do so because nobody bothered to teach them sensible coping methods for dealing with a situation that feels a lot like imprisonment to a kid who's never actually been in prison. They take it out on you because you're handy, and can't reach the people and systems that are the actual cause of their misery.