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I am a teacher. I am going to use this forum on occasion to highlight the lives of some of my past students. Names have been changed.
I taught Robert many years ago. Robert did not want to be in school and he prided himself on not doing any work in school. I felt it was a waste of his life and after contacting his parents, I started keeping him after school for 1.5 hours, 4 days a week until he started completing his work. We had an activity bus which set the amount of time I would need to keep him. It took 2 weeks before Robert got the hint and he started working. One day another student came to my class and did the, "I don't work in school talk." I was so happy when Robert went up to him and told him about his staying after school and it being easier to work. The new boy took Robert's advice.
Sad: One Monday, Student came to school devastated. His dad had been depressed about losing his job. On Saturday. Robert had been off playing and his mom was working and Robert went to look for his dad. He looked in the shed out back and found his dad, dead. His father committed suicide with a shot gun and Robert found him. Robert continued to come to school and worked even harder than he had previously. As time went by, I asked him why he was doing better.
Robert said, "My dad always wanted me to do well in school."
2 comments:
What a poignant story. Sounds like your efforts to get Robert to study and become a serious student were life-changing. Your desire to teach your students really paid off with that young man. It's such a shame that he must live with the horror of his dad's suicide for the rest of his life. I hope that Robert received counseling to help him cope and let go and move on with his own life.
He got minimal counseling at school. His mom worked at a minimum wage job with no benefits. Dad had lost his job thus no benefits like counseling.
I am hoping to go through that town summer of 09 or 2010. I would like to look him up.
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