Pedagogy and Praxis Day 3

On Wednesdays my school has a totally different schedule. This is a day for electives and stuff. There's a creative expression class, women & men's spoken word, Capoeira, dance choreography, and other stuff. On this day I co-teach with Amanda a class called metamorphosis. This class introduces students to the school, its philosophy, and its history. Like the name implies, the class tries to transform the students and familiarize them with the school through work and activities. That being said, this class is my most challenging class. There are personalities within the class that seem to have the ability to incite and amplify bad behavior in other students. One of the teachers at the school that has been there for 32 years said that this class was a very wild and out of control class... GREAT!!! I don't have a 1st period on this day and when I come in I'm pretty mellow. By the time this class is over, my blood pressure has easily tripled. We've done a bunch of different strategies to try and discipline the class and we've taken A LOT of points off of contracts (each point below 12 on Wednesdays is an hour of detention), but still we got problems. Today we got sick of it and I had to escort some boys to the principal's. Meta is by far the easiest class in the school and everyone has to pass the class to stay at the school. As it stands right now, there will be some students that won't be asked back to the school next school year... and I won't lose sleep over it. But we both want the students that are trying to do better to stay and that will take some work. Out of a class of 22, about 6 people turned in their homework today.

Next week I've arranged for Pam Africa to come and speak to the class about Mumia Abu Jamal. While I think that this class would do well to have someone like Pam come and talk to them about Mumia, I have to admit that I'm worried that they will be rude and wild and the whole talk will go badly.

I have to remember that there is a lot of pain and suffering in this class. One of the few moments when students were listening was when we were going over the statement of philosophy. We were talking about the inequalities within society and the devaluing of students by the very education system that is supposed to uplift them. Then a student asked me about the connection between education and the symptoms of student apathy and alienation (substance abuse, teen pregnancy, materialism, etc.). I spoke a bit about the ideal goal of education to uplift and empower people. But then I gave my personal views on the some of the pain and the root social causes that I see within the black community and I could tell it affected the class. I talked about how when I was working at the elementary school many children latched onto me because I was one of the few male teachers there. Many of the students did not have fathers and I guess I became somewhat of a surrogate father to many. While I recognize that a single mother or extended family can take very good care of a child and love them greatly, I believe that it is very important for young boys to have a male figure in their life. Boys need men in their lives to be an example for them and to straighten them out when needed. If not then manhood often becomes a gross parody of what a man should be. A mishmash of bad tv characters, musicians, and other boys they see and interact with. While I recognize the political, economic, and social factors that can lead to the single parent home, they still exist and the pain still exists. I saw the pain of a missing father (among other things) in the students at the elementary school and I saw the various ways that they acted out this pain. As they get older this wound will only fester unless they take proactive steps to heal themselves. I am 29 years old and I don't speak to my father and I often talking about it in therapy. It affects you. Family problems can fuck you up royally for a good long time.

I suppose that is a positive with that group. The few times that we do get really "real", they are attentive. They want to hear and talk about what no one talks to them about. And in their journals they write for us, they want to talk about their pain. After I gave my experience a student asked me if I was going to cry. People laughed and I replied that I wasn't but if I were to...so what. It is the oppression of the patriarchial machismo culture that says that a man cannot cry or show emotions. Check that, a man can be very angry or very happy. But anything that smacks of feelings is taboo. This type of thinking only perpetuates suffering.