Biggest Success

I think one reason I enjoy my second hour Comp I class so much is because Justin is in it. He is the one who is currently in a half way house. He is also the one who for the first four weeks of class carried a 2% grade. He is also the one who only attended five days for the first three weeks. I chose to deal with this basically by allowing Justin to dig his own grave. If he wants to skip and get stoned in the parking lot - or whatever he was choosing to do - than so be it. The turkey plant will use him soon enough.

But that changed about three weeks ago. Justin was placed in the half way house, where they keep him under wraps, monitor his grades, attendance, and his behavior. What an improvement. The turning point came when he said, “Man, I don’t get into trouble. Trouble gets into me!” I blogged about that already, so I won’t go into much detail on that.

But since then he has been a near model citizen. He couldn’t do his collage because he didn’t have access to magazines to cut up at the half way house, so he chose to write another type of essay to make up for that. He completed his missing themes (though they were of poor quality and received half credit for being late). He did extra journal topics. He has begun contributing to class discussions. And I have begun to see the wily and bright kid behind this exterior. He just hasn't been in school enough to get the skills he needs to effectively communicate that wily and bright interior.

The real turning point came early last week. Usually by the beginning of second block, my coffee is either finished or cold. So I was thirsting a diet Mountain Dew. So as the bell rang, I called Justin out to the hall. I imagine he was thinking, “Uh oh.” I also imagine the rest of the class was thinking, "Oh, Justin's in trouble yet again."

I handed him a five dollar bill and asked him if he wouldn’t mind getting me a diet Mountain Dew and he could get something to eat or drink with the change. I did this because I wanted to see what he’d do with a little responsibility. I had no doubt that he would bring me back a pop, and grab something for himself, and with the exact change.

And he did. He had a broad smile as he walked into the room as we were talking about the film review. He set the pop on my desk and said, “They were out of diet Mountain Dew so I took a chance with diet Pepsi.” He put my change down and sat down and ate his cookie that he bought. I imagine he enjoyed the class seeing him being trusted.

Since then, Justin has worked wonderfully. Yesterday, we had a long talk about his plans for getting out of the half way house and what he wanted to do afte that. Just today as we began our persuasive theme, he constantly contributed to our discussion. Not only were his thoughts smart, but they also confirmed something I was thinking all along, “This kid is smart. I have to change the way I view and deal with these troubled kids. I can’t just automatically relegate them to the turkey plant.”

While I think I have been able to teach Justin a few things, they don’t compare to what he has taught me. That is an even greater highlight than the things I’ve accomplished with my College Comp class.