The Fact Is: I Can't Get Kids In This City To Come To School

Third quarter marking period just ended. I teach 100 seniors, and when I look at the grade book, I could legitimately give F’s to 60 of them. This is the number of kids who have missed ten or more days out of 44 this quarter.

It used to astound me how many days of kids missed when I first began teaching here. Like most things, however, I’m numb to it now. I try to have standards, I really do. I penalize kids for not being in class. I call home during prep periods, even though many of the phones are disconnected and not in service. I send attendance letters home and document it to the main office.

The fact is: I can’t get kids in this city to come to school.

The problem is that these kids somehow know they will pass and graduate high school. Taking a principled stand and putting the F on the report card would just be a hoop for all of us to jump through. I would have to defend all the efforts I’ve made to contact parents, social workers and administrators for every absence the kid has had. The kids know how hard it is to actually fail.

The basic message I’ve gotten from the administrators is this: “Get these kids up outta here.”

So I did. I passed all but three or four kids for the quarter.

My conundrum is this: The main control I have over my seniors is the fear of delaying their graduation. Now that they see I’ll pass them, my fourth quarter could well be hellish. I passed the kids who cussed me out, didn’t show up, can hardly read and write – I passed them all. Why the hell not?

My kids are 18 and 19 years old. In this city, there is no educational body we could send them to next year or over the summer that could catch them up to where they should be by this age. At least with a high school diploma, they appear to prospective employers to have accomplished something.

I used to believe every single sob story I heard from kids because I was hungry to believe I was truly helping America’s neediest. I’m not so cynical to not believe anything they say to me anymore, but could all these kids seriously be telling the truth?

Two cases and then I’m outta here;

1 – A girl whose missed 35 days this semester barged into my room demanding a “make-up” packet. I flipped out because a) it was lunch time and I was trying to have a peanut butter sandwich and b) I hate when truant and rude kids tell me what I should be doing for them. She then flipped out on me and told me that she ran away from her mother who lives in New York and claims government money that is supposed to be going to support this girl. Continuing on, the girl said she lives alone and hasn’t eaten in three days.

I asked her if she wanted the rest of my peanut butter sandwich and put a passing grade on her report card.

2 – A boy who tells me day after day that my class is “bullshit” and hasn’t even shown up for the last three weeks caught up with me in the halls today and told me he’s thinking of dropping out because he won’t pass my class. He told me he’s hustling for money on the streets because he can’t find a job, he takes care of his grandmother, who is sick, and his mother is a drug addict. The kid had tears in his eyes.

I told him I’d give him a D- and to not get caught or he’ll just be another statistic.

People who read this might see me as a pushover or naive, and I wrestle with those things. I’m a lot less naïve than I was when I first stepped into this urban environment. But I really know these kids after teaching here two years. I see what they are capable of achieving and also what depths they are capable of sinking to if people don’t step in to at least try and help.

What good am I doing society if I fail a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds? Chances are, most of them wouldn’t try to make up the class and would fall short of graduating.

Then again, what good am I doing by passing them?

High school for me wasn’t like this at all. I have no reference point for any of this to make sense.