Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Settling In for the Long Haul


(Continued from last Wednesday, September 25 . . . )

In the beginning of my draconian rule of the seventh-grade classroom in Omaha, five students spent time after school trying to subtract and get to 0.
         For the next two or three weeks, five or more had to stay and work until they’d done the subtraction correctly throughout the entire problem. As I said last week, this process sometimes took two hours.
         As the days passed, fewer and fewer checkmarks went on the chalkboard. Ron held out for two or three weeks and had to stay after school each day. Led by him, Bill and John also had to stay for they followed his example and disrupted class when he did or disrupted it on their own and looked to him for approval. All three always had several  ✔✔✔✔✔✔✔after their names.


         But once Ron decided he’d had enough of this, he settled into brooding silence—like Heathcliff on the moors. He had a good brain and somewhat infrequently would offer an answer in class. His buddies would look at him admiringly and he’d preen. But when I complimented him on something he’d done or said, he seemed appreciative. I wasn’t letting him bully me and I think he developed a grudging respect for me.

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff
in the 1939 film version of Wuthering Heights.
         The surprising event to me was that no parents called or visited me to object to their son or daughter staying after school. 
          In mid-March a couple did come to the convent one evening to demand that I change their daughter’s grades. Pam had taken her 3rd quarter report card home that afternoon and her parents insisted I had a grudge against their daughter because she was smarter than I.
         For the first two quarters of the school years Pam had gotten straight As. I’d given her Bs and Cs because she'd done sloppy and incomplete work. She seemed to think that the assignments I gave were too juvenile. She was a ringleader of the girls, but she didn’t get checkmarks. She was too intelligent for that. Her resistance came in the form of inflections and facial expressions when she answered or asked a question.
         Pam’s parents simply couldn’t understand why her grades had gone down, and when I told them about her attitude, they expressed their belief that she was smarter. More attractive. More charming than any of the girls in her classroom. For all that, they thought, she should be given As.
         I assured Pam’s parents that if her work and attitude changed for the last quarter, she’d make better grades. I’d become steely by then and her parents seemed to recognize that the grades would remain as given. They left angry, but Pam began to respond to class questions without disdain and arrogance. She was an attractive girl and she and Ron were a couple.
         Sister Mary Norbert, who’d been at St. Peter and Paul’s Grade School for several years, had taught many of these seventh graders in her fifth-grade class two years before.
         One day she said to me, “You know, Sister Innocence, that lot’s not innocent. They haven’t been since they started carousing. Partying in the fifth grade. They changed then. And not for the good.”
         Seeing my befuddlement, she whispered, “Sex.”


         The next day I looked out upon that sea of fifty-five students and felt sad for them. I could see now why several of the girls seemed too mature for their age. Too knowledgeable. Why they stood on the playground with hips and chest stuck out provocatively. Why they looked at the boys with their mouths open while running the tip of their tongue over their lips.
         I knew that with regard to their sexuality they probably had experienced more than I. Yet that fact wasn’t important. I was there to teach them; they were there to learn.
         From February 15 to the end of the school year, I was perhaps more creative in my teaching than in any of the subsequent years. The students’ passivity and boredom became a challenge. Next week I hope to share with you some of the projects with which I captured their attention.
                                                ( . . . continued next Wednesday, October 9.) 
Photographs from Wikipedia.
         

44 comments:

  1. Sounds like your rule really brought them around. 5th grade though? Wow, that is more than a bit young for sex.

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    1. Dear Pat, yes, I thought so too but I was really aptly named in the convent. Peace.

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  2. They tried to be adults without being mature. How sad sexual exploration at an early age is.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Dear Janie, I think you've said it well. Most of the girls were "innocent," but a few had the look I came to recognize. Peace.

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  3. Oh my. Little girls learning how to use their bodies as leverage. This breaks my heart, but I know that it happens. I am enjoying your stories of this time in your life very much. Thank you for sharing this and for writing it with such style. You are a talented writer, Dee. :-)

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    1. Dear DJan, yes, as leverage in a classroom where the boys stuck them on their buttocks with their math compasses as they walked past.Thanks for the compliment about my writing. I do think that with practice, my writing has improved. Peace.

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  4. As I've commented on 2 other posts today, I'm 79--I may not last until the conclusion!!

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    1. Dear Fishducky, you're going to have to live a lot longer because there are three or four more postings for the Omaha experience! Peace.

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  5. This is so difficult. I hope you salvaged some of the girls. I can see them cooking spaghetti in a steaming apartment over a shop, baby on hip, waiting for their husband (?) to come home from his job at the garage.

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    1. Dear Joanne, I don't know if I "salvaged" any of the girls. I do know that many of them wanted to learn and they wanted a classroom in which they could so so. I'll introduce you to Maureen in one of the next two posts. Peace.

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  6. Yes, still with you, and still agog.

    I’ve been waiting for you to get the big expulsion guns out and they seem to have done the trick. I hope . . . .?

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    1. Dear Friko, yes, they did the trick but so many of the students hated me for the discipline I imposed. Peace.

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  7. That Pam and Ron were a couple explains a lot. However since you got through to one, it had to affect the other. I like that you praised Ron when he did well. I think everyone looks for approval and gangs often provide that. Much better results if a parent or teacher does. That was a smart move.

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    1. Dear Arkansas Patti, it's true that gangs provide approval and they also give a sense of belonging. Complimenting Ron wasn't hard because he was bright and when he chose to respond in class to a question, he gave a well-reasoned answer. Peace,

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  8. Standing up to parents too! You were a pretty good teacher, as green as you were!

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    1. Dear Mimi, you know I didn't feel like a good teacher. I felt "green" as you say and very much a failure. Peace.

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  9. Everyone craves approval, and you made Ron earn it. Well done Dee.

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    1. Dear Arleen, thanks for the compliment. The ones I gave to Ron did mean something to him I think. But he continued to dislike me intensely. Peace.

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  10. That they were sexualized so young breaks my heart, but also explains some of their behavior.

    Good for you for standing your ground and not changing the grades. You did that girl a huge favor and hopefully brought about lasting change in her attitude. I am looking forward to the next installment!

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    1. Dear Shelly, I think there's going to be three or four more postings on the Omaha experience back in 1960. Life got much better when I returned to Omaha in the fall of 1960 and taught 5th graders. Peace.

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  11. I thought young sexual awareness was just a fairly recent thing but I see it's been going on a long time. You did a marvelous job with your teaching. It must have given you a lot of stress but you hung in there.

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    1. Dear Manzanita, it was stressful, and I felt an abject failure because so many of the students so disliked me. Peace.

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  12. Two things stand out in this post for me. Firstly that you praised Ron when his behaviour warranted it - a wonderful lesson about consequences. And secondly that you refused to change Pam's grade until her work improved - another lesson about consequences.
    I am just sorry that your early days as a teacher caused you so much pain.

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    1. Dear EC, my mom instilled in me a great sense of justice and fairness and so praising Ron and not changing Pam's grades just seem fair and just to me. Peace.

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  13. You continue to amaze me, Dee, with your perseverance and refusal to give up on this class. I know you are busy with other writings, but, wonder if a book won't be in the making on this class.

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    1. Dear Penny, I do hope at some point to do a memoir--maybe even a trilogy of memories: one about my early life up through college; one about the convent; and one about my post-convent life. But writing takes so much time and I find that as I age I need more and more rest! A quandary. Oh, and Penny, I got "Code Name Verity" from the library yesterday. It has the same cover as the one you displayed in your posting. Peace.

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  14. Hi Dee, Glad you found the answer to your discipline problems.... Sounds like the check-marks have worked well.

    About kids growing up too fast, it is even worse now, which is hard to believe considering the kids you worked with back then. Today's kids are not learning about respect or compassion---and definitely not learning good morals. Just look at the trash on TV about families these days... Unbelievable! I truly don't know what will happen to our country in the future...

    Hugs,
    Betsy
    P.S. check my blog to read about our latest trip!!!

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    1. Dear Betsy, many of today's children, I think, are respectful but so many aren't because they haven't learned civility in our culture. When we have celebrities--movie stars, sports figures, politicians--who show no civility. Who rant and rage in public, how can the children learn. The adults in front of them act like children. Well, that was a little rant on my part! Peace.

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  15. wow. That's actually sad rather than shocking. I don't think I even knew what sex was when I was in 5th grade. Nor did I care.

    I can't wait for the next post :) I want to know how you got their attention :)

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    1. Dear Baiba, it was sad. I got their attention with that subtraction problem that I detailed last week. And then I came up with some creative ideas that served me well. Peace.

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  16. I, too, am surprised at the sexual overtones of 5th graders in 1960! At the beginning of 1960 I was a freshman in high school and saw less provocation than that! Five years earlier, when I was 10 and in 5th grade I don't remember it at all. I dread to think what it's like now! Anyway, you were a much better teacher than you gave yourself credit for being -- being able to stand up to those parents is proof of that.

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    1. Dear Broad, I don't think this was really common--at least not in the other Catholic grade schools in which I later taught. But many of the students in that classroom were still truly innocent. But a few had hung out together for years. The boys became a gang; the girls became a clique. Peace.

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  17. So sad that kids start being sexual and dealing with adult issues way before they need to. I was so totally naive that I didn't realize that there were kids in my junior year (and younger) that were having relations, shall we say (1966-7). I heard rumors and did not believe it for a second. Senior year when I fell madly in love I thought I absolutely had to be the only "bad" girl in school. Apparently far from it--LOL! I was just younger than everybody else, idealistic, and quite ignorant. But fifth grade!? Wow! Of course my sister was four years younger and there was a lot of sex happening in the junior high at that same time. I was just blissfully unaware, I guess.

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    1. Dear Rita, like you, I was blissfully unaware until Sister Mary Norbert told me. Peace.

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  18. Such a familiar tale, Dee: young people will always be challenging and rewarding in equal measure to teach. The mind of a human being is filled with ambiguities and undercurrents.

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    1. Dear Kate, what you say is so true: ambiguities and undercurrents. Truly, human beings are mysterious an awe-ful creatures. Peace.

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  19. I love that not only are the kids beginning to change, but that you are also. Looking forward to the next installment.

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    1. Dear Deb, yes, I did change. I found more certainty and more freedom also. Thanks so much for stopping by and reading not only this posting but the one before. I know how busy you are and I appreciate your spending some time with this saga of Omaha in 1960. Peace.

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  20. I was in the fifth grade in 1950 and by seventh grade some of my classmates had "discovered" the opposite sex. I think most boundaries were still in place and we were reasonably well behaved for pre-teens, but the world of school changed. I was still wearing ankle socks, but I discovered the NY Times, poetry and the yen to travel. Odd hobbies for a seventh grader, but they stuck with me through life. I'm not sure if I hadn't been nerdy if I would have cultivated my life long interests at such a young age.

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    1. Dear Carol, I suspect that many interests we have as children parley into adult jobs and avocations. I always wanted to be a mathematician, an engineer, a writer, or a painter/artist. All four still hold interest for me, but it is as a writer that I've found my Joseph Campbell bliss. Peace.

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  21. Ooh! I'm so excited to have some time to start reading blogs again! On to your latest post! Peace!

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    1. Dear Stephanie, so good to have you back! I've missed you. Peace.

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  22. Your story continues to hold great interest for me. I recall learning that the Pill came out in 1960. While I doubt it was used by these kids so soon, I also wonder about the affect of it on society in general. But what do I know. There have always been these issues around, and you were given a challenging group. I appreciate the story of your dealings with them.

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    1. Dear Deanna, those seventh graders were "challenging" and yet the challenge is what helped me, I think, to become a better teacher than I probably would have been without the baptism by fire. Peace.

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