Working for the WeekendJanuary 27-28, 2007
As this is my first post of 2007, I wanted to wish a belated Happy New Year to all my readers. During a visit to their home last night, my friends Greg and Mary Jo reminded me that it has been quite some time since my last posting on G’s Spot. I then realized I had recently passed the month mark since my last entry, which is totally unacceptable to both me and (I am assuming and hoping) my loyal readers. I can only imagine if my Netflix or Sports Illustrated didn’t show up at my door for a month. I’d be so irate that I’d be, um, making angry phone calls and sending pissed off e-mails to customer service, or something like that. Anyway, I am sorry and I won’t let it happen again. I promise.
So, I once again spent Saturday and Sunday out at the unnamed educational service where I have been working part-time since November. There I have been helping our youth keep their New Year’s resolutions to get a better score on their end-of-grade tests so the federal government doesn’t take their schools’ funding away via No Child Left Behind. Or, maybe it is just to pass next week’s math test so that they can play more X-Box and see “Epic Movie” with their friends. Either way, a lot was on the line here.
This weekend, I had a couple of children who went on and on about how they hated reading and that it was boring. Just the kind of enthusiasm a teacher likes to see! I looked at the information profile for one of them and saw that he liked basketball, so I said “You like basketball, right? Who is your favorite player?” Somewhat to my surprise he said his dad, and not LeBron, Carmelo or Kobe as I had expected. It would have been kind of cute, actually, if the kid wasn’t such a brat.
So I said “Do you think that your dad was just born with the ability to play ball or that he had to practice and work hard to get better at it?” Perhaps just to be argumentative the young boy went with the “he was born with it” option and I said “Even if he was born with natural ability, he’d still have to work to get better at it, right?” The kid grudgingly admitted that yes, he’d have to practice to improve. I said “It is the same with reading. You have to practice to get better at it.”
I could have predicted the counter-argument I would get next as I have gotten it many times before. All teachers have at some point. It is roughly stated as “Why do I have to do this/When will I ever need to use this?” So, I ask the child what he wants to do for a job when he grows up. “Shoot people” he said without a hint of irony. I was like “That’s not a job unless you’re a hired assassin or James Bond.” “Be a police officer, then,” he said. I went on to tell him that you have to pass a written exam to be a police officer and asked how you would do this if you couldn’t read.
The student considered this for a moment and didn’t have much more to say about the matter. Score one for the teacher! For those keeping track at home, in addition to providing quality reading instruction and assessment for roughly 20 children this weekend I also managed to defeat an 11 year-old in a debate. They don’t pay me enough for this kind of expertise. All in a day’s work for yours truly.
So, I once again spent Saturday and Sunday out at the unnamed educational service where I have been working part-time since November. There I have been helping our youth keep their New Year’s resolutions to get a better score on their end-of-grade tests so the federal government doesn’t take their schools’ funding away via No Child Left Behind. Or, maybe it is just to pass next week’s math test so that they can play more X-Box and see “Epic Movie” with their friends. Either way, a lot was on the line here.
This weekend, I had a couple of children who went on and on about how they hated reading and that it was boring. Just the kind of enthusiasm a teacher likes to see! I looked at the information profile for one of them and saw that he liked basketball, so I said “You like basketball, right? Who is your favorite player?” Somewhat to my surprise he said his dad, and not LeBron, Carmelo or Kobe as I had expected. It would have been kind of cute, actually, if the kid wasn’t such a brat.
So I said “Do you think that your dad was just born with the ability to play ball or that he had to practice and work hard to get better at it?” Perhaps just to be argumentative the young boy went with the “he was born with it” option and I said “Even if he was born with natural ability, he’d still have to work to get better at it, right?” The kid grudgingly admitted that yes, he’d have to practice to improve. I said “It is the same with reading. You have to practice to get better at it.”
I could have predicted the counter-argument I would get next as I have gotten it many times before. All teachers have at some point. It is roughly stated as “Why do I have to do this/When will I ever need to use this?” So, I ask the child what he wants to do for a job when he grows up. “Shoot people” he said without a hint of irony. I was like “That’s not a job unless you’re a hired assassin or James Bond.” “Be a police officer, then,” he said. I went on to tell him that you have to pass a written exam to be a police officer and asked how you would do this if you couldn’t read.
The student considered this for a moment and didn’t have much more to say about the matter. Score one for the teacher! For those keeping track at home, in addition to providing quality reading instruction and assessment for roughly 20 children this weekend I also managed to defeat an 11 year-old in a debate. They don’t pay me enough for this kind of expertise. All in a day’s work for yours truly.
posted by Grant @ 8:18 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Yes, those 11 year olds can be quite tricky when it comes to verbal battles. I'm glad you scored the upper hand and didn't have to resort to smacking him upside the head (that's the old school approach, and I know you're a new school kind of guy). Nice to see some new posts!
--Greg
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