Summer School Is Almost Over!

July 23rd, can't wait for that day to end! That means summer school will be finally over and I will have a short time to relax a little before school starts. Even better news, I am almost finished with both of my courses I am taking this summer and will soon be assured I can renew my teaching certificate and keep my job! Moments like this make me wish I was just a bit older and qualified to get a permanent certificate like someone I know....uh hem...uh hem....not to mention any names. This is one instance where it pays to be old. Ha ha! Sorry Donna.

Summer school always has it's hard times; face it, I don't get to work with the most stellar students. In retrospect, some of them really are great kids and just had a bad year, but others, well, maybe not. One student of mine I would like to share a story about--let's just call him "Bob" for security purposes. At first I thought Bob was just another one of my students who didn't care if he passed or not. He was always habitually late, or just plain didn't show up for class. I was writing him off. When he did show I would tell him he should put in more time or run the risk of not getting credit. Bob was very quiet, didn't say much. He appeared to be intimidated; I don't know why. Turns out with the help of his graduation coach, I learned a bit more about Bob. I figured he had a language barrier problem, but just didn't realize how bad it was. The more I learned the more I realized he should not have been with me, but with ESL tutors to help him understand the words and questions he was supposed to read. For the last week his graduation coach had come to class to read Bob the questions and help explain what they meant so he could answer them. During this time, I got to help a little more too since he was staying longer and putting in more work. After all, I had a lot of tedious things to enter in the computer for the other students as they finished up work. I had learned that Bob took care of his younger siblings in the morning, and when he left a 10 year old was in charge of the two younger ones till he returned. Turned out while not totally innocent, Bob did have a lot on his plate and undertaking a lot more responsibilities than a 10th grader should have.

Today Bob is only 3% away from passing, I thought we would get him out today, but computer problems really put a damper on that. There just wasn't enough time. We left the room in great spirits. Three minutes after he left, he ran back into my room looking for his graduation coach. I could tell he was scared. Some punk just pushed him off of his bike and stole it. His only means of getting to summer school because he lives so far away, it's too long of a walk. I went outside with him, no bike, saw some kids out in front of the school and questioned them. Of course, no one want's to say anything. C'mon, they saw everything, they know it, and I know it. They are just too scared to admit it. We saw his coach pulling around the corner, I stopped him and explained what happened. He put Bob in the car and tried to find the bike. I hope they did, his coach knows the he lay of the land and the kids quite well.

I just feel really horrible for Bob. He did nothing wrong, he was working hard, he is a good kid. When you work in the city long enough, sometimes it seems like bad things always happen to good people. Why?