Fatigue. Waking up at 6:15 is no joke, not getting back to the cabin until 7:00 is even less of one when one considers professions; at first teaching seems like a pretty nice gig. You have winter, spring, and summer breaks and you're inside all day. But after today, all I have for teachers is a very deep respect. Especially KIPP Gaston teachers. Not only are they at school for at least 10 hours a day (if not longer), they have specific cell phones solely for students' homework questions after hours. They are literally on call . . . but dedication breeds high expectation which leads to excellence. And clear evidence of this is found in the students. Today, I met a 5th grader who already knew where he wanted to go for undergrad school, what he wanted to student, and gave a list of potential grad schools. I'm 19, a sophomore in college, and I can barely find matchings socks in the morning. Another conversation today is how cooperative the school is as a whole. The students and teachers were all so nice, genuine, and enthusiastic. When I reminisce about my middle school days, I remember the chaos of public school, and we had our days in private school. But the question that is raised is is this serenity a regional thing? It seems like people in the South are more friendly regardless of the situation . . . the students are so responsible, and they hold each other accountable, it's a totally different mentality. But there are some things I don't like either. Like when a student acts up, they're on "bench" and they have to walk about with their shirts inside out. It's like a Scarlet Letter type thing. At the 'pride meeting' the benched students must stand in front of their entire grade and apologize for what they did wrong. It seems rather traumatic, but then again it may be extremely effective. Another crazy fact is that a graduation requirement for high schools is they have to apply to 6 schools and must be accepted into a 4-year college. It's a lot of pressure, but then again high expectations . . . Though my first day was really tiring, it was cool observing and interacting with the kids and teachers. My hand is cramping so I'm gonna stop writing now . . .
TTYL, Raven
No comments:
Post a Comment