Image courtesy of Ian Kahn
Some years ago when I was a classroom teacher, my Vice-Principal told me that he desperately needed my help. A student named Matt Martin (name changed to protect the guilty) was in serious trouble. Matt had burned his bridges with nearly every other teacher in the school and was now on a reduced program and earning just enough credits to graduate. I was Matt’s last resort to earn a grade 11 science credit and graduate that year. It seemed Matt had some issues. He could be angry, abusive, and at times even aggressive. And those were his good days.
The VP was persuasive and I finally (somewhat reluctantly) agreed
to have Matt join my Biology class.
The tone of the class changed instantly. Matt was everything he was
promised to be and sometimes more.
The VP had offered to allow Matt to use his office if he got angry or
frustrated and couldn’t cope with a class. There was a day or two when I
suggested Matt pursue that option. But Matt kept coming back, day after day,
sometimes working fairly well and cooperatively and sometimes not, and the
school year (slowly) passed by.
June arrived and to many people’s surprise Matt graduated.
Those of us who had taught him breathed a sigh of relief. September was looking
brighter already.
A few years later, I was shopping at a local big box retailer
when a smiling young man walked up to me with a warm greeting and a big handshake.
I recognized him immediately: it was Matt. He seemed genuinely glad to see me. He
was working at this store and had been for some time. He was sorry, he said,
for being such a pain (not his exact words). He also told me how much he appreciated the efforts of
me, his other teachers and the VP in trying so hard to keep him in school and
allowing him to graduate. Wow, what a transition in that young man’s
personality!
That event stands out as one of the best moments of my
teaching career. It reinforced my belief that the troubled, difficult students are the ones that need teachers and other positive role models the most. The
“good” kids, the ones that all teachers enjoy having in their classes, probably
need us a lot less. If it came down to it, the bright, well behaved students could probably do a reasonable job of teaching themselves. Matt clearly demonstrated that the students we have to drag through the
system kicking and screaming are the ones who, in the end, may appreciate and
need us the most.
