Trapped in a Kid’s Body
“I see you Mr. Adza, I see right through you. You think you can charm your way out of any situation with your big smile and smooth way with words, but you can’t just coast through life with this sort of arrogant, nonchalant attitude. One day its really gonna bite you in the ass,” said Mr. Jansen, as he towered over my desk. Most of the class had scurried out at the sound of the school bell. I was simply trying to explain to the man that my random outbursts in class actually did him a favor because it loosened my classmates up, freeing their mind for the learning process. In fact, Mr. Jansen and I were actually a team. We were the dream team! I was the comic relief and he was the scholar. We went hand in hand.
…show more content…
Unbeknownst to me, I was in for a rude awakening. The class setting was nothing like it had been before. I truly felt as though I had entered some sort of bizarro world, some sort of twisted parallel universe. In many of my classes, we were expected to silently trudge through copious amounts of busy work. In fact, one of my teachers would quickly scribble our daily instructions on the board, proceeding to bury himself in a stack of newspapers that stood mile high. The man had no interest in learning our names, let alone providing proper academic guidance. I was now facing a real obstacle. How could I charm him and show him what a cool guy I am? How could I get a good grade while doing the bear minimum? I had hit a dead …show more content…
My English teacher was a real jerk too. But, to be fair, I screwed up our friendship before it could even blossom. The first book he assigned was Lord of the Flies. I whispered to the kid next to me, “Spoiler alert, the fat kid dies at the end.” Apparently, I underestimated the volume of my voice because the whole classroom heard. And this one girl, earning her spot on a one-way ticket to my “non-friends list,” told on me! The teacher nicknamed me “Aaron the Novel Ruiner,” and ignored me the for the rest of the year. This was an outrage! He should have been calling me “Aaron the Diligent Student.” For God’s sake I had taken the time to read each and every SparkNotes before starting a novel. If that’s not an example of a good student, I don’t know what is. When we would discuss literature, my hand would dart up before anyone else, certain that I had just come up with the most articulate comment ever. I was rejected time and time again. The teacher would point in my direction, raising my hopes that my banishment had been pardoned, but he was only toying with me by calling on the student sitting to my rear. I now refer him to as “The Wrathful
Mr. Prud’homme, a substitute teacher for the summer session, went to Gene and Finny to discipline them the next morning for missing dinner, but he was soon won over by Finny’s ebullient talkativeness and leaves without giving punishment. Mr. Patch-Withers, the substitute headmaster, held tea that afternoon. Most of the students and faculty conversed awkwardly; Finny, on the other hand, proved he’s a great conversationalist. As Mr. ...
“School can be a tremendously disorienting place… You’ll also be thrown in with all kind of kids from all kind of backgrounds, and that can be unsettling… You’ll see a handful of students far excel you in courses that sound exotic and that are only in the curriculum of the elite: French, physics, trigonometry. And all this is happening while you’re trying to shape an identity; your body is changing, and your emotions are running wild.” (Rose 28)
Edmundson was considered one of the “interesting” teachers because of the fact he would tell jokes in order to keep the students interested, since it was the one way he figured worked; however, he did not “teach to amuse…or for that matter, to be merely interesting” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 390). College students get to pick their professors and they have to ability to find out if the professor is to their liking, or else they can just drop the class and/or find a better-suited professor. Edmundson felt as though the student’s “passion seems to be spent,” and that “university culture” is becoming more and more “devoted to consumption and entertainment” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 391). Furthermore, colleges make it even worse due to the fact that they make the campuses beautiful in order to attract students to apply, so students attend those campuses imagining that the classes will be just as
Nathan, Rebekah. My freshman year: what a professor learned by becoming a student. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. Print.
“If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a packet. There’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. They need to learn face to face. I’m telling you what you need to do. You can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell ‘em.” Texas student, Jeff Bliss, decided to take a stand against the lack of teaching going on in his class (Broderick).
Everyone has difficult obstacles in their lives. I have had a few myself and they each have changed me for the better. My most profound experience was being repeatedly molested as a child. I wasn't aware of exactly what was happening to me. I didn't know being touched was wrong. I just knew how disgusting it made me feel, but I didn't tell anyone at the time. I shared this publicly as an adult to help other parents realize that children need to be protected. It was a long journey to reach to the point where I could speak about my experiences with anyone. These experiences from my childhood affected me deeply; however, I have overcome them, learned from them and I have contributed at a higher level because of them.
A Child Called It is a book written by Dave Pelzer. Dave writes this book as an abused child who went through horrific experience. In the first part, he writes how he was horribly beaten, and even forced to swallow his own vomit, ammonia, and even soap. Dave writes about the horrors children go through when abused. A Child Called It is an unforgettable account of an abused child who was brutally beaten, burned, starved, and tortured with an unstable alcoholic mother. A child Called It is an incredible emotional story where the author describes how he endured unthinkable suffering and abuse from his own mother who hated him for no reason. Dave provides a detailed account of the neglect and abuse as well as the emotions, struggles, and the pain he had to cope with in order to survive. Later on Dave was able to be freed from his hateful mother and the hell of life he was living in.
My first experience with death as a child happened when I was eleven years old. My grandfather passed away in his sleep from heart failure. I had spent that night at a girlfriends, when I came home I asked my father where my mother was. He replied simply that my grandfather had passed and she was with my grandmother. It was not discussed any further and I went to my room where I awaited my mothers return. My mother proceeded to explain what happened. I was more concerned with her well being than the death itself. At the time I knew what death was. I had a fascination with death as a child, it was something that greatly interested me. My grandfather had a very traditional funeral. I was very timid and curious at the viewing. I felt uncomfortable
Chen. Another teacher followed up, he was the 6th graders’ PE teacher I suppose. I stood back up, and I wiped off the little blood coming out of the wound on my lip created by the 6th grader’s scratches while he was on the ground. Mr. Chen took me and my classmates aside, he asked: “What happened over there?” One of my friends answered: “ We were playing basketball at the court first, then they came, and want us to leave the court for them to play. Michael refused, so he punched him, and they just got in a fight.” “Michael,” he then turned to me, “ Even though it is just self-defensing, but you could’ve just run and find me to solve the problem, and you won’t get hurt, why didn’t you do that?” I looked into his eyes, and I said determinately: “I can’t be a coward in his memory, I have to show him what I got, so he won’t try to bully me next time I see him in this class. Plus, a man won’t run from a fight.” At the end, I did not get in trouble for fighting, and those 6th graders have never mess with me again.
The students do try to seize their days, both as individuals; bucking the pre-programmed lives that have been laid out for them and as members of ...
Allow me to tell introduce Coach Johnson. Coach Johnson and I have only known each other for a short while, four months, to be exact. The moment I walked into his class, it was decided that Coach Johnson was not somebody I liked. The moment the populace of the class had their derrieres planted on the cool plastic seats, he dove into his life story, for the sixth time that day. Sure, most teachers do this, but they were at least humble about it. Knowing how many shops he owned, the countries he visited, and the fact that he was the Valedictorian of a 5A school, was redundant, to me. After seven and a half minutes of his endless narcissistic babble, he stopped talking. The class all exchanged glances at one another. Did he expect us to applaud?
Today is a day I have longed for all my life. The day when i become a
Dreikurs’ model relies on the idea that “a misbehaving child is only a discouraged child trying to find his place” (Jones & Jones, 2013, p. 33). When a student is feeling inadequate, they will filter through some or all of the four attention-getting behaviors. These disruptive behaviors are: attention getting, power, revenge, and displays of inadequacy. Dreikurs believed that when a child fails to feel as though he or she belongs, they will “act out” in various ways in order to gain acceptable. Sometimes these behaviors work, and other times, students are left feeling more frustrated. For example, a student who may fall behind in class may use inappropriate jokes or commentary to solicit respect from classmates. The student may then try exhibiting power over the administrator in the classroom further trying to increase their status in the social climate. If the student does not receive the attention they seek, they may try to seek revenge on the teacher or even other students in the classroom. In many cases, the disgruntled student gives up entirely and will revert to using phrases such as, “I don’t care anyway,” or “I meant to do that.” Instead of being instructed on how to cope effectively with their emotions, students default into primitive fight or flight strategies. Because of a student’s inability to feel socially equa...
Looking at his ridiculous, surprised face, I grew even angrier. Ironically, to defend a teacher who didn't hit students, I resorted to violence to deal with Chang-Min. Suddenly, I kicked him in the stomach, and we started fighting. Phil-bong, the vice-principal, caught us and brought us to the student life center for punishment. Phil-bong didn't even ask us why we fought; he simply asked who hit first. Admitting that I did, Phil-bong proceeded to beat my hands until they were swollen and reddish. Watching me getting hit by Phil-bong angered Mr. Zang, and afterwards he asked me why I hit Chang-Min. Mr. Zang convinced Phil-bong to forgive me, and I started to blame my classmate for my sore hands, and I asked Mr.
Summer break was over, and it was the time to go back to school to my eleventh grade. School for me wasn’t that different as my summer break. I never felt like not going to school after a long summer break because I used to have a lot of fun in school. School for me was a place where you would socialize, gossip, brag, drive attention, miss conduct, daydream, text students, sing, ask silly questions and flirt with girls. I think now you know how my days at school used to be. However, a day has come that I would not expect it to come at all. I suddenly became a much disciplined student that I would not do anything out of the way. It all happened when I meet my new physics professor Jamal Betar who has wonderful qualities that amaze him from other teachers, and he also gave me the true meaning of education that I have never thought of before in my life.