Re: Ages

Emily Friedman (bananafish_9@yahoo.com)
Sun, 25 Oct 1998 16:49:29 -0800 (PST)

> Let me explain where I'm coming from...I have a student in my poetry
> workshop who shouldn't be there...he's a first year college student
> who couldn't get into any of the compostion sections...as Director
of the
> Writing Program at my school, I decided to give him some of the
stuff he
> needed to survive a world of "academic discourse" while using his
interest
> in poetry to thread the needle of his learning skills...sounds good in
> theory but in practice I've been dealing with immaturity and things
like
> not handing in work on time, yawning and sleeping in class, and
comments
> that give a resounding thud to class discussions...after a
particularly
> bad class for the student (I had to ask him to stand up as a way to
stay
> awake since our class meets at 930 AM and he's not able to wake up
for it
> easily) I tried to control the hard ass in me...after all, the
institution
> failed to give him the right class but I wanted to be the right
> teacher...so I saw him on campus and asked him what it would take to
"wake
> him up" in class...we didn't get too far but I jokingly suggested
> coffee...he took me seriously though, so I found out how he likes it
and
> decided I would give him a cup of coffee to help show how I wanted
him to
> wake up...he didn't show up at the next class until a half hour
after it
> started...the coffee I had brought for him was given to another
student
> who probably read the disaapointment on my face and figured that this
> teacher's act of kindness soured shouldn't sour the whole
class...when the
> sleepy student finally showed up he had this phony sense of surprise
that
> I would bring him coffee or want thim to be awake in class...who's
gonna
> catch him, why is he dragging me over his cliff, and why do I still
care?
> 
> Holden knows, will
> 
> I have seen this happen at school where teachers have tried to reach
out to students but the students never respond. It always saddens me
when I see it. Sometimes I suppose that there is nothing that you can
do but it's great that you tried.
-Liz Friedman

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