Carson St. after the game.

Nick on a trash can.

The crowd filled the street and blocked the victory parade downtown.

Here we go...

3 May, 2006
Thoughts on teaching, schools, behavior and culture:

This past week I had the priveledge to teach art lessons to two drastically different groups of middle-school kids. Group A was from a Pittsburgh Public School, and I went to their school to teach a printmaking lesson. Group B was from an all-girl private school located on the border of a highly affluent neighborhood and a notoriously rough one, and the girls came here to MCG to do a writing/graphic design/layout project. Group A was maybe 90% african-american, 10% white. Group B was about 65% white, the remainder being a mix of asian, indian and african-american.

Both groups had individuals that were a joy to work with - who were engaged in the project, excited to be doing it and were very creative. The experiences, however, could hardly have been more different. In Group A the class periods were overwhelmingly loud, with students screaming for the sake of making noise, chasing each other around the room and getting into verbal/physical fights. As a group, they showed a lack of respect for the teachers, each other, and the materials they were using. I had to personally cut most of the linoleum blocks because a member of the first period class managed to slip one of the cutting tools out the window to a friend in gym class. When we realized a tool was missing, the Principal and a security guard came, and when it failed to show up, the Principal banned the students from using the tools. Group B was almost annoyingly quiet - it was hard to get them to answer questions even though, when pressed, they often knew the answers. They were respectful of us, the materials and each other. When we asked them to start typing their writing pieces, the room became quiet apart from the quick clicking of keyboards. When I talked to the students about their writing, I found that I was bringing up questions of writing style rather than pointing out mistakes - getting them to work on honing their sentences for clarity.

My question is this: Where is the extreme difference between these students coming from? Is it just a matter of good school vs. bad school? My co-worker and I had a conversation with one Group A student who said she hated the school because of the behavior of her fellow classmates, yet I saw her exhibiting some of the same behavior - Was she slowly becoming assimilated to her surroundings? Is it a matter of parents taking time to make sure their kids are learning? Is it a cultural difference in styles of behavior, or in what is viewed as important? If it's largely about cultural differences, what right do I have to pass judgement on the kids in Group A? Yet I honestly believe that the kids of Group A will not be well served if they choose to go through life with the set off attitudes/behaviors they showed last week.

Me, I think it's a combination of all of the above, with maybe a touch more to do with culture than the other two. I have worked with several of the students from Group A in a summer program we have at MCG where they were grouped with kids from similar backgrounds who they didn't know, and none of the behaviors I saw last week were really an issue. Taking them out of their comfort zone, making a safe space for them, putting them with kids they have no history of falling into disruptive patterns with, giving them really cool projects to do and letting them know you have really high expectations for them (not just behaviorally but also artistically) did wonders.

In the end, which group learned more? Which group got more out of the experience? Group A left me exhausted and reminded why I teach at MCG rather than a public school, but also with a sense of accomplishment and of pride for the students who really did well, which reminded me why I teach. Group B was a joy to work with - it's fun teaching kids who are eager to learn, but also with the sense that they didn't really need me - not that they already knew it all, but that they already have the drive to learn, and people who are looking to learn generally find teachers...

If you got the whole way to the end of this rant and have thoughts you feel like sharing, let me know.