The Teacher Learns a Life Lesson

Today was my last day of student teaching at the high school where I've been all semester. In the state of Colorado, special educators are licensed for k-21, so I must spend part of my time student teaching at the primary level and part of my time student teaching at the secondary level.

I remember when I got an e-mail over Christmas break that I was being sent to a high school on the other side of town, in a different school district from where I'd been. I was terrified. All I knew about high school kids was what I could observe by driving past the local high school just before school was starting. Kirby and I used to have to pass it to get to our MOPS meetings, and I can remember thinking that the kids looked "scary"; so many of them hiding behind shaggy hair extensions, "skinny" jeans (which I'll never get), goth makeup and multiple piercings. Oh - and the smoking! Yes, I knew about high school kids, and I was pretty sure that they and I would have no common ground; that I would never be able to identify with them or build a rapport with them.

Here is what I learned this semester, and why I am confident that I was wrong:

• Underneath the makeup, piercings and dark apparel are just regular kids. They want to be liked just as much as every other kid in high school wants to be liked.
  
• Despite what many adults think, most of the kids do "care" - about school and graduating, it just seems like an insurmountable task to them, so some give up.
• Every student is good at something, but some of them are even better at hiding what they're good at.

The most important thing that I learned from one of the teachers I had the privilege of working with is to have high expectations for all students. Too much time is spent dumbing down curriculum for students with learning disabilities and social and emotional disabilities. What these kids need the most are authentic learning opportunities. Give them something that matters. Our students spent weeks preparing for a debate - researching and substantiating opinions. During the culminating project - the debate - it became glaringly obvious that these kids had seldom been asked to use higher-order thinking. Many of them were passionate about their beliefs, but had never had to articulate them in any sort of organized way before. Granted, some of them have processing problems that make it difficult, but if we don't have high expectations even for these kids, how can we expect them to function outside of high school?

In my final minutes with the students today, I asked them to answer three questions for me. Because some struggle with writing and prefer to communicate orally and vice versa, I gave them each an index card and an opportunity to speak in class. I asked them:

1. What is the most important quality you look for in a teacher?
2. What is the thing you most need right now to be a successful student?
3. What did you most need in elementary school that would have made a difference in your education today?

Their answers were honest and painfully reflective of some of their experiences as a young children with special needs. You know, when it comes right down to it, I think all they're asking for is what we all want (in their words): respect, one-on-one time, caring, protection from bullies. Other than the one student who wrote "BOOBIES" (and what 15 year-old doesn't want a teacher with boobies?) in huge letters across his card, what every student expressed wanting, is something that we should all be able to give. I was touched by their genuine responses. One girl in particular stands out in my mind. She said, "A lot of people look at a kid like me and think I look scary, so they treat me differently right from the beginning. But you're different - you never did that". It wasn't easy for me to share with the students my impression of the high school kids that live near me, and how I used to view them. I thanked them for showing me how terribly wrong it is to form an impression of someone based on their looks. I was, in a word, humbled.