It has been a dreary day, both at the Outpost in Back of the Yards, and in Streeterville. Last I checked, it was 57 degrees with pouring rain at the Mini. Friday afternoon traffic is generally a crawl, but when it rains it gets even worse. Having finally arrived home, the view from the 14th floor today is somewhere this side of dismal.
Life in education was pretty much uneventful until just before the last period of the day when it took an ugly turn. Stupid Latino gang-banger decided to shove his way into my classroom looking for someone for some gang related nonsense. I stopped him from entering (physically) and he took issue and screamed and yelled and called me ugly names and I had him carted off to the Dean of Students. The scene in the hallway drew an amazed crowd. Attendance in the last period was low. A lot of people seem to have Friday afternoon appointments with something.
Twenty minutes into the final period of the day, I had managed to get my class on task and finished documenting the occurrence in the hallway. I called the main office and asked a security person to come to my room to get said incident report. When I stepped into the hallway, clutching said incident report, 5 African-American gang-bangers came running down the hallway screaming and yelling, trying to get away from the Security guard on the floor below. When they saw me they attempted to hide in an alcove where there are lockers. l had to order them out of the locker area and off my floor. Two of the Bozos thought they were hiding behind the end of the locker row and I could clearly see half their bodies sticking out in plain sight. Not the sharpest tacks in the box. Turns out another teacher down the hallway had spotted them "running in the halls, making a great deal of noise, and writing on the walls with markers."
Jesus! Turns out 2 of the above belonged in my class, but had not come to class. Two of the above are in my division (homeroom or advisory group). I had to document who they were, look up their ID #, and fill out 4 more incident reports. I have no clue who the 5th clown was, just another BD (Black Gangster Disciple). In the interim, I had to keep my class on the task of taking a quiz without cheating, and grade a couple of papers to boot.
Have you ever had the urge to smack someone up the side of the head with a two by four, bounce their head off the wall a couple of times? Amazingly, in 15 or so years of teaching in all the wrong schools I have managed not to indulge myself even once. Tempted many times, mind you. At times like these I have to remind myself of the success stories. We just got our ACT results for this year, today. Average ACT scores in this school have averaged about 15 in the past. This year a fairly large number of kids scored 17 or 18 and several scored above 20. For the record, in schools such as the Outpost, this is good. Forget all you know about ACT scores, or don't know. Low income minority kids with a score of 20 or above can go to the University of Illinois, not Harvard, but a pretty good school nevertheless.
In another story from the Outpost, one girl, who is in my World Studies class and also is one of the AP students I tested last week, came to me with a plea yesterday. It seems she had bought her Prom Dress and her family is pretty poor and she didn't have any money to pay for her ticket. OK brace yourself ladies and gents. The Prom is being held in a ballroom at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue and tickets go for (Drum roll please.) $95. Yikes! 99% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch, (That means their family is living below the poverty line.) and they're going to a Prom where tickets go for $95 a pop.
Anyway, Mr. Ray was asked to "sponsor" said student for the Prom. She looked at me expectantly. She was terrified to ask. She had to ask another teacher to come ask for her, and I told that teacher to send her to see me personally. Then she had to bring a friend with her to help her ask. It was difficult. There was never a question. I went to the ATM and got the cash, and plopped it down with the lady who runs the Prom. Every woman in the building, consequently went "AWWWW! That's sweet of you Mr. Ray. That's really sweet." Apparently anonymity of benefactors is not an issue at the Outpost.
Anyway, I constantly have to remind myself of the nice stories of the achievers, and the good kids who just want to go to the Prom to remind myself of why it is I do what I do. It's sad that these kids co-exist, walk the halls side by side with the clowns, the Latin Kings, the GD's, the BD's, the kids who are overdue to be locked up, the kids who go to school just to take care of drug business, and do their best to disrupt the learning experiences of those who actually want to learn. They yin. The yang. The dark. The light. It takes both sides. Welcome to life in a real big city school.
No comments:
Post a Comment