You Don't Necessarily Know...
Eddie (not his real name) was one of 33 students in one of my AP CS Principles classes last year.
Eddie consistently did not to do assigned homework for my class. He was always pleasant and polite during class and clearly enjoyed the content of the course. However, by March, I had become very frustrated that he would not complete his work. His lack of follow-through was particularly frustrating in an AP course which requires that students independently complete two performance tasks as part of the College Board requirements.
Last year we lost the first three weeks of school to Hurricane Harvey, and lost a couple more school days to snow and then to the Astros. So I was running dangerously low on patience as I felt pressure to finish covering the curriculum during AP crunch time.
By March, Eddie was badly failing my class because of missing and incomplete assignments. Despite verbal promises to me that he would submit his practice performance programming task, he did not. I was very disappointed by this and let him know. After class one day, I asked him about his work habits at home to try to understand why he wasn't getting his work done. Eddie wistfully said that he just wanted to move back to his old house since he was currently living in an apartment due to Harvey. I responded that there are other students in a similar predicament, but they are still able to get their work done implying that he did not have a good excuse. I had been corresponding with his mother throughout the year, but emailed her again that afternoon to let her know that Eddie hadn't completed yet another project.
Eddie's mother replied that evening, and apologized for Eddie. Then she shared that Eddie has been having a hard time lately since his father took his own life a little over a year ago. She said that Eddie has been really reflective and struggling with it.
The moment I read the email, I felt like I hit a brick wall and began to cry. Really hard. And I cried that entire evening.
I had watched the Code.org Equity video several times, but there are a few seconds within the video that resonated strongly with me that evening. CS teacher, Heavenly posits that "There are a lot of factors that go into equity, more than just gender and race. When you have a group of students in front of you, you don't necessarily know who has what experience or who is combating what particular challenge in their life...You have no idea."
After that email, the AP performance tasks dimmed in importance, and sadness and empathy took their place. I developed patience for Eddie at a depth that I didn't know I had the ability to cultivate. This patience was the tool to help establish a more equitable classroom for someone who had experienced a life tragedy that I could not even bear to imagine.
I let Eddie know a couple days after the email that his mother shared with me what had happened to his father. Eddie seemed almost relieved to be able to talk to me about his going to a counseling session or how his father really liked coffee. I believe that he felt safe in my classroom, even when he had not completed his homework.
This experience humbled me. We really have no idea sometimes what is happening in our students' lives.
Eddie consistently did not to do assigned homework for my class. He was always pleasant and polite during class and clearly enjoyed the content of the course. However, by March, I had become very frustrated that he would not complete his work. His lack of follow-through was particularly frustrating in an AP course which requires that students independently complete two performance tasks as part of the College Board requirements.
Last year we lost the first three weeks of school to Hurricane Harvey, and lost a couple more school days to snow and then to the Astros. So I was running dangerously low on patience as I felt pressure to finish covering the curriculum during AP crunch time.
By March, Eddie was badly failing my class because of missing and incomplete assignments. Despite verbal promises to me that he would submit his practice performance programming task, he did not. I was very disappointed by this and let him know. After class one day, I asked him about his work habits at home to try to understand why he wasn't getting his work done. Eddie wistfully said that he just wanted to move back to his old house since he was currently living in an apartment due to Harvey. I responded that there are other students in a similar predicament, but they are still able to get their work done implying that he did not have a good excuse. I had been corresponding with his mother throughout the year, but emailed her again that afternoon to let her know that Eddie hadn't completed yet another project.
Eddie's mother replied that evening, and apologized for Eddie. Then she shared that Eddie has been having a hard time lately since his father took his own life a little over a year ago. She said that Eddie has been really reflective and struggling with it.
The moment I read the email, I felt like I hit a brick wall and began to cry. Really hard. And I cried that entire evening.
I had watched the Code.org Equity video several times, but there are a few seconds within the video that resonated strongly with me that evening. CS teacher, Heavenly posits that "There are a lot of factors that go into equity, more than just gender and race. When you have a group of students in front of you, you don't necessarily know who has what experience or who is combating what particular challenge in their life...You have no idea."
After that email, the AP performance tasks dimmed in importance, and sadness and empathy took their place. I developed patience for Eddie at a depth that I didn't know I had the ability to cultivate. This patience was the tool to help establish a more equitable classroom for someone who had experienced a life tragedy that I could not even bear to imagine.
I let Eddie know a couple days after the email that his mother shared with me what had happened to his father. Eddie seemed almost relieved to be able to talk to me about his going to a counseling session or how his father really liked coffee. I believe that he felt safe in my classroom, even when he had not completed his homework.
This experience humbled me. We really have no idea sometimes what is happening in our students' lives.
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