A Time to Leave
My high school math teacher was an ex-principal with an eccentric streak. Luckily for his students, the eccentricity was beneficial. We always received little 5 minute life lectures in the midst of x=y and factoring. He was my math teacher for four years, so those 5 minute lectures added up.
I recall one of those life lecture moments when one of my friends dropped the algebra class that he was failing to take an alternative math class. He wasn't in the room at the time, but my teacher used him as an extended example of how we all "hit a wall" at some point in our lives and how that was good, really good, because we learned our limits and what we could do well, and not so well. Or not at all. It was the first time that I can recall a teacher treating failure, an F, as anything but, well, failure. Suddenly, there was something positive and valuable to be learned from failure. And you lived past it. And moved on.
Jim, a senior in one of my elective classes, learned that lesson this semester. He is capable and bright, but lazy would be giving too much credit to his efforts. So, with several failed classes making a May 2006 graduation impossible, Jim's parents decided that it was time to call it quits.
They withdrew Jim from school and gave him several options: homeschooling, alternative school, or GED preparation. In Jim's case, I can't say I disagree. This was one of those walls that Jim was beating his head against. He wanted to graduate, but really had no interest or motivation in the learning to be done on the way to walking down the aisle. He would have struggled some, surrendered far too easily, and failed most of his classes this semester as well. No prophet needed for that prediction.
Perhaps this too isn't failure, just learning limits and making difficult choices. I'm sure there will be something positive in the decisions that Jim will be making and in the efforts he will make to finalize that diploma. He will live past it, and move on.
School doesn't solve everything.
I recall one of those life lecture moments when one of my friends dropped the algebra class that he was failing to take an alternative math class. He wasn't in the room at the time, but my teacher used him as an extended example of how we all "hit a wall" at some point in our lives and how that was good, really good, because we learned our limits and what we could do well, and not so well. Or not at all. It was the first time that I can recall a teacher treating failure, an F, as anything but, well, failure. Suddenly, there was something positive and valuable to be learned from failure. And you lived past it. And moved on.
Jim, a senior in one of my elective classes, learned that lesson this semester. He is capable and bright, but lazy would be giving too much credit to his efforts. So, with several failed classes making a May 2006 graduation impossible, Jim's parents decided that it was time to call it quits.
They withdrew Jim from school and gave him several options: homeschooling, alternative school, or GED preparation. In Jim's case, I can't say I disagree. This was one of those walls that Jim was beating his head against. He wanted to graduate, but really had no interest or motivation in the learning to be done on the way to walking down the aisle. He would have struggled some, surrendered far too easily, and failed most of his classes this semester as well. No prophet needed for that prediction.
Perhaps this too isn't failure, just learning limits and making difficult choices. I'm sure there will be something positive in the decisions that Jim will be making and in the efforts he will make to finalize that diploma. He will live past it, and move on.
School doesn't solve everything.
posted by curtis @ 3:36 PM
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