Day 13

Every Wednesday when I show up to CCHS, I always observe everything going on around the school. I usually show up when the students have a break between classes, and many of them linger outside the school, talking with their friends and smoking cigarettes. They don't even look my way as I walk past, surely because they are accustomed to students like me coming in to tutor nearly everyday. Some are quiet and walk the halls with their heads down, others are shouting at their friends, cursing loudly, and arguing with their teachers.

In the Social Studies classroom, there are only about six students besides Karen. Karen only goes to the classroom to work on her online homework because the Social Studies teacher lets her, and she has a good friend in that class. Karen is opinionated and outspoken, but never disrespectful to the teacher or any of the other students. When we work on lessons together, she is very focused on her work and wants to finish it as quickly as possible (she reminds me a lot of myself!).

But some of the other students in the class have a hard time focusing, despite the fact that the class is extremely small and they each get a lot of one-on-one attention from the teacher. In many ways, it reminds me of John Elder Robinson in the book I read at the beginning of this semester, Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's. Undiagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome until his early thirties, Robinson wonders what is wrong with him in school and when he's around other people. He admits to having limited social skills, almost zero empathy when talking to other people, and just being downright uncomfortable in many social situations. For example, Robinson points out that "As I got older, I found myself in trouble more and more for saying things that were true, but that people didn't want to hear. I did not understand tact" (p. 34). Now I don't necessarily think any one in Karen's class has Asperger's, but I would not be surprised if some of her fellow students have symptoms of ADHD. Whether they have been diagnosed or not, it makes me wonder about behavioral characteristics that my future students will have. I know that many of the students at Classic City have learning disabilities, and many take medicine or get special help from teachers so they can finish their work. Typically, this extra guidance and help can make a huge difference in the life of a student- if they are encouraged to believe that they are smart and they have potential, they will have a much better chance of believing that and worker harder in the classroom. From what I can see, Classic City High handles many of these problems very well.