5.2. Journal: April 18, 2002

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."--Mark Twain

NOTE: You may want to refresh your memory on April 18's lesson plan.

I spent about 15 minutes during prep talking with J.V. (a junior) in detention--for cutting class, I believe. (At least, whether or not anything else is going on, that alone would land him there.) My CT had talked to his counselor, who said he was talking with folks at the Resource Center about substance abuse. In any case, I brought J.V. HOMEWORK #1 (GIF scan of page 1, GIF scan of page 2, and GIF scan page 3), Images of Infinity (a beautiful multidisciplinary and multifaceted meditation on infinities culminating in Cantor's "diagonal slash" proof) and pulled him from the detention room to ask what was going on.

He said he got great grades freshman year because he had no friends, then started hanging out with a "bad group," which put his grades down the drain sophomore year and much of this year. He said he'd kicked the substance abuse--may or may not have been straight with me, but heck, there must be some pride involved there, I'm a nominal authority figure, and in any case I reckon he knows the truth of it, which is what counts.

He also said he'd gotten into bad habits: cutting class, forgetting to take his textbook(s) home, and so on. I asked him what he wanted to do with his life. He said designing cars--engineering. I said something to the effect that he had the intelligence, but colleges won't know him and that the grades have to reflect his brains, too.

Anyway, I asked him for 5 things he could do to get back on track: do homework, show up to class, eat breakfast, etc. I wrote them down. He signed it. I signed it. He tried to hand it to me. I handed it back and told him to keep it. I let him know I didn't expect perfection but to start by showing up Monday....

ADDENDUM: He did. So far, since that talk he's only missed one class, and skipped out 10 minutes early on another (before a rally, so shortened periods). Not bad for a start.

Following up on the "what is a number?" survey, I had students pick and put up responses on a large sheet of butcher paper. A number of students complained that "they said they didn't know," and I told them that was a perfectly acceptable response; it wasn't as if we were testing the people they'd surveyed. What I discovered, and what I hoped they did, was that most people are stumped by that question; others refer to concrete notions of "quantity."

In class, students worked on the coordinate systems potpourri. I really, really should have photocopied those coordinate grids for the anamorphisms group so they didn't end up having to trace the darn thing. My mistake.

In any case, having noted down previous groups, I stipulated that they could choose this time but they couldn't work with anyone they'd worked with last time. A.M. said that was "sneaky." When asked why, he said, "Because it makes us vary the people we usually work with, but we still have a choice." Bingo. I only hope that the fact that I encourage students to tell me what they think my goals are in doing this, that and the other thing won't backfire on them some other year if they run into a teacher who doesn't like being interpreted thusly.

M.H. came up to me and asked if she could do the observations now, after declining it earlier; last time, she liked the people she was working with, but this time...I said no, and asked if she'd always have a choice of partners in real life. She said no, but wasn't happy about it. I knew her group was headed for trouble and I was right, as R.S. and G.P. generally get along fine with people but dislike M.H. I had asked my CT to keep an eye on them to get a second opinion on the social dynamics, which she did.

Now, I asked all three to stay after class for the obligatory lecture on people getting along. I am far from being the most tactful person in the world, and I spent most of my school years being convinced that "tact" was a way for stupid people to keep from hearing things straight-out. As the years pass, though, I realize (I'm a slow learner) that societies' "politeness" rules are a form of social interface and buffer zone. The point isn't always truth, but harmonious coexistence. All three group members were very squirmy when I asked them why they thought I kept hitting the class over the head with my two rules (be polite, be constructive). I didn't expect coherent answers on the spot--goodness knows the number of times I've walked away from a conversation only to come up with the perfect rejoinder/remark/articulation-of-thought two hours later--but I did ask them to "think about it." Who knows if they did.

M.H. I asked to stay after the other two left since, as I noted earlier, these issues seem to center more around her than the others involved. Now, I feel terrible about this, but I asked my CT to come in for the chat, too, as I wanted a triangulation-point for the things I wanted to say. However, I've sworn before that I wouldn't put a student in a two-on-one situation, and look what I did. If I knew of a close friend she has in that class who'd be willing to stick around for support I'd've asked, but I don't offhand. I've got to learn to put my $$ where my mouth is.

In any case, it emerges that M.H. has been having difficulties with her parents that put her in a lousy mood and that she knows she's been taking it out on other people. My impressions of her emotional state were somewhat contradictory. She would state in one breath that she didn't care what others thought of her and in the next that "it really bugs me" when someone excluded her. She also insisted that she wasn't being mean for meanness' sake but was a little too confused to make the empathetic/sympathetic jump to others' behavior, which she did see as being mean for meanness' sake. It's adolescence, what do you expect? In any case, my CT and I tried to assure her of our support, and also caution her about handling social interactions.

What kills me about my talks with J.V. and my talks with M.H. is that I feel so ill-qualified to be handling this kind of intervention. It's not that I don't think it's an important aspect of teaching--I do. Interventions by some wonderful teachers in the past kept me from frying my options. But I've hardly been an exemplar myself in attendance lately, and I consider myself one of the last people you should turn to for advice on social situations. (This doesn't stop certain friends from asking, no matter how many disclaimers I give them.) I've had, and still have, my share of "issues." What makes me at all better than the next person to do this? It's lives we're talking about here, and the idea of playing with lives makes me very, very nervous.

I opined to a fellow steppie that we really all need counseling degrees as well and he agreed. This fellow steppie feels generally good about his teaching and his adequacy to handle whatever will come up. I guess the difference between him and me is that I don't feel at all adequate to handle things like this without mucking something up for some kid who really deserves better from someone who doesn't know how to give it.

Meanwhile, presentations on Monday. I find it fascinating that the three groups working on Nine Men's Morris came up with four completely different coordinate systems, three of which presage polar thinking. Ingenious. The first group (JPEG scan) used notation that suggested functions, as "V2(N)" (for example) suggests, counting clockwise and counting boxes. The second group (JPEG scan) adapted chess algebraic notation. The third group invented one system that counted along four axes, and another that involved counting clockwise and counting boxes. (Unfortunately, due to the size of the papers and the scanner I was working with, the posters are truncated, but the ideas come through.)

One person in the chess group knew the game already, while the rest didn't. I told them that there are many chess variants in the world and that not everyone's going to be familiar with any given one of them. (I've always wanted to learn Burmese or Japanese chess; and I've played Chinese, though I usually end up suiciding due to the peculiarities of the cannon piece.) The peg solitaire group decided to label to the pegs instead of the points on the board. I never thought of that, but I like it. (I can see disadvantages, too, but for the given puzzle they were notating, it works fine.)

As for the magic cylinder group, despite my own snafu in obliging them to trace all those lines, they came up with a checkerboard/"X" pattern. Even better: in the last few minutes of class as we were wrapping up, they had attracted a huddle of some 6-8 students who were oohing and aahing over the thing. Yes, fun things and math are not mutually exclusive sets! (I pointed this out. Their stares at me were slightly shocked. It was worth a try.)

Standardized testing and shortened periods--50 minutes from the usual 100--as well. Joy. I keep saying I want to give these tests to the legislators. Well, it's true. I wonder how many of them would pass...?

Copyright © 2002 Yoon Ha Lee <requiescat@cityofveils.com>
Last updated on 20 May 2002