Time to Pay the Piper

OK I need to seriously consult some global warming experts and ask "What's up with the weather dudes?" The sun is out. The sky is blue. The lake looks lovely, as does Navy Pier and the water treatment plant, as they are bathed in slanting afternoon sunlight. It's June 10 and it's 58 degrees at the Mini. I'm getting really tired of long sleeves and light jackets. I'm getting really tired of Easterly winds off Lake Michigan. (The Chicago Sun-Times tells us that the lake water is 51 degrees currently.) And I'm especially getting tired of having to bitch about the weather. We're 11 days from the solstice, and that means we oughta' be warm!

I went to the Outpost in Back of the Yards today and I fully expected kids to clean out lockers and get those textbooks back. At present, some 60 kids out of the full complement of 134 have failed to turn in textbooks, and will consequently receive a debt slip. Of those 60 kids 50 are Freshmen. Perhaps it's 55 total and maybe it's not actually 60 because some owe for two books, one little $25 book and one $65 monstrosity. Tomorrow I fill out the debt slips. My best estimate of the cash owed to the school for the non-returned textbooks runs in the thousands of dollars.

At this time of year I am always amazed. Kids leave school for the summer and fail to clean out their lockers. When the school goes and cuts locks off the lockers, we always find scads of textbooks that have been charged to the kids who didn't return them. We also find book bags, coats, shirts, hoodies, shoes, and a plethora of notebooks and paper. How did it come to be that these kids have so little regard for the value of things that they just abandon them all and hope Mom and Dad will pay for more?

Mind you, this occurs in a school where 98% of all students come from families living below the poverty line. Eventually Mom and/or Dad, and/or Grandparent(s) and/or guardian of choice will have to replace book bags, hoodies, shirts, gym shoes, notebooks, etc. They will also be charged for the non-returned or lost or misplaced textbooks. Students are not allowed to graduate or get transcripts so they can transfer unless all debts are paid. So what's up with this behavior?

When I look at the sheer numbers of non-returned textbooks, and non-paid activity fees, etc., and I see that by far the majority of them are from Freshmen. What has been going on in Elementary School that they are totally unprepared for reality when they get to High School? I get the feeling that many of them do not believe that they will actually have to pay for stuff. It's a harsh lesson when they get to High School and they actually have to pay (Or their parents/guardian has to pay).

At one other Chicago Southside High School where I worked, there was a young man who actually made it to graduation day to find out that he owed $900 for textbooks galore, unpaid fees, and sports uniforms not returned. His mother made him work it off. He was shocked. Many of my division (Homeroom) students were shocked today to discover that because they had failed to pay their activity fees, they could not receive a Yearbook.

Likewise many of my students were totally shocked to find out that after months of me cajoling them and prodding them and warning them, and they continuing to act like total idiots and not doing a bit of classwork and failing all there tests, actually failed the class. They were shocked to find that they were advised to attend Summer School, which begins next Monday. (And Summer School costs $25/class. Regular school is free.) Alas, all of those who passed their classes will be sleeping in, or getting a job to make a little cash, but those who didn't believe that the teacher would actually fail them will be getting up early to spend their summer in class, making up the credit they didn't get for that class they didn't actually believe they'd fail. Again, what's going on in Elementary School that these kids arrive here and don't have a firm grasp on reality?

Last but not least in this spiel, I have to relate the story of a young man who, in the company of another young man showed up for my class today, mostly just to ask what his grade was. It is important to understand that the first young man is a student with above average ability and a lazy streak that caused him to squeak by with a D. It is important to know that the second young man is a Special Education student with a learning disability. He too received a D, but with a lower average and definitely with a lesser grasp of the facts of the class than the first young man. In real-life education, these two are judged not on actual output, but on perceived individual ability. The first young man has more expected of him, so he got a D. The second young man had an average that was just out of the normal passing range, but because of his IEP (Individual Education Plan) less work is expected of him, and the lower average is considered passing. The first young man was incredulous, not grasping the subtle nuances of life in public education. He just looked at me in total astonishment and said, "I got the same grade as he did?"

There are many oddities about the above story. I am not allowed to convey to the first student that the second is a Special Education student and thus gets preferential treatment in grades. I am not allowed to tell him that his grade was earned and the second student's grade comes with a note on his transcript, noting that he is Learning Disabled, and the grade, therefore, does not mean the same thing. The first student may become disillusioned and cease trying to excel at all if he gets the same grade as the second student for an obviously better effort. The second student may get a false sense of accomplishment and when he gets out of High School will be up a creek if he continues putting forth the same effort and expecting positive results. There are no Special Education teachers or laws in the adult world of work and family. Everyone plays by the same rules there. Either you do the job up to expectations or you get canned. Hard lessons to learn, when all of your life people have been letting you get by for less than others. Just time to "pay the piper," that's all.