Some days are more interesting than others. Tuesday morning I awoke at 4:18 a.m. with a pounding sinus headache. I took two Advil sinus and two extra strength Excedrin and lay back down, trying to go back to sleep. At 5:40 a.m. my alarm went off and even though my headache was gone, I hit the snooze alarm twice before getting out of bed.
By the time I got to school a combination of the coffee and the cool temperatures had me awake and feeling pretty alert. My mood changed for the worse after I entered the school. Before I could walk the 100 feet from the door to my classroom I heard a young man scream and obscenity at a young woman in the hall. His back was to me, but everyone around saw me standing behind him, waiting to see what I would do. He is a senior and Tuesday was their last day. I could ignore the infraction and go along my way, but the crowd around him was waiting to see what I would do, and I feared that doing nothing would give the students permission to behave in a like manner. I confronted him, asking the young man to follow me to my room. I recognized him as someone I had taught two years before, but pretended that I did not know him. I asked for his ID to which he said he did not have one, and then asked if he had any identification and he replied no. I told him that he would have to accompany me to the office and on the way he produced his old ID from last year. I reminded him that students were required to wear their current ID all the time they were in the building.
When we arrived at the office we ran into one of the assistant principals at which point the student produced his real ID. I explained the situation to the administrator and he called on his walkie-talkie for the Dean who took charge of the miscreant. I wrote him a detention for his misbehavior. Because this was their last day of school he would have to serve his punishment before he could receive his cap and gown or graduate. He was not a bad kid when I had him in class and the Dean assured me that he had no significant discipline record--but some things just can’t be tolerated in a school building; obscene language, lying, as well as significant facial hair, even for a Senior on the last day of school and he was guilty of all three violations. The detention created a significant and well deserved inconvenience for him.
The day then reverted into the normal hum-drum associated with the end of a school year. During my free period later that day I was approached by another student who needed a signature for his Chemistry class next year. I took care of his problem and we had a chance to talk. He is a transfer student from the local Public High School and I found him to be intelligent, mature, and articulate. I asked how he liked it here compared to his former school and he said it was much safer and more conducive to learning. His former school is widely considered to be below par, even though their per-student expenditures are more than if costs to send a student to our state university. My contact with this young man was far more pleasant than the interaction with my before-school friend.
I ate my lunch alone, as usual, opting for the solitude of my empty classroom over the crowded faculty dining room. It is the only time I can be alone with my thoughts during the day. After lunch I sat through two AP Chemistry research presentations and oversaw an Honors Chemistry lab. After school I helped a young lady in my regular Chemistry class work through a review problem she was having difficulty with.
I had two regular tutoring students after school; both attend another local Catholic School. Getting home a little after 7 p.m., I used the last half hour of daylight to water the flowers I had planted Monday, ate dinner, and wrote an Honors Chemistry exam for Thursday. About 9:30, exhausted from a long day, I went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment