Teaching Hope (Empowerment)

Entry 139 was the first to stand out to me because I honestly thought it was going to be an underdog story about a student that worked hard and against all odds and expectations pulled off something amazing. Unfortunately, the story took a 180 and didn’t end up like that at all. Even though the student put his heart into the work and the teacher did everything they could, he did not pass the eighth grade. Both the student and teacher were devastated about how things had turned out. I was a little annoyed that he did not pass because the story was set up in a way that I thought he was on the road to success finally. It illustrated how sometimes, even if you put a lot of work into a student to help them pass, it may not work out the way you had thought it would. The teacher did not give up and neither did the student and the next year he was able to pass. That was the second lesson to be learned from this entry. Never give up on a student.

Another entry that through me through a loop was 146. To start, the school decided whether students passed sophomore year based on how they did on one final presentation. Sure, they could have multiple tries at it but it still seems like a lot of pressure, especially seeing as how many students are terrified of presenting anything. The student, Mike, did not pass his first time and decided that he wanted to drop out because of it. The students of the sophomore class and some of the teachers grouped up to try and convince him that he should stay in school. This is another thing that I’m not too sure about. I feel like there are better ways to handle the situation. He decided to drop out originally because (it seems to me) the pressure got to him. Now everyone is around him begging him to stay and putting more pressure on him. I honestly feel as though they got lucky with him coming back to school in the end.