Being the Change...

I teach first year Composition at an urban community college and am struggling mightily with the challenges that my students face (not just in the classroom, but out of it as well). There are students in my classes who cannot form complete sentences, yet they've managed to get into a first year comp course. This is so incredibly different from the time I spent teaching comp at a Big 10 research university. Some days I'm not even sure that these two schools are on the same planet, let alone the same state.

I am frustrated with the lack of skills on the community college level, but if truth be told, I feel more useful here than I did in the Big 10 school. Some days I feel as if we've made HUGE gains when a student understands a thesis statement or how to write a body paragraph or how to use textual support. Other days, I feel utterly defeated when I look at how far these students have to go.

For the first half of the semester I was frustrated by what I perceived as a "lack of committment" on the part of the students in my comp classes. They didn't show up to class or when they did their work wasn't completed or if it was, it was done in a haphazardly manner. I felt angry at them, angry at me (for not being stricter), angry at the school systems that produced students without skills.

And then I spent a day substitute teaching in an urban elementary school. What a slap in the face. I quickly realized what teachers are up against in the classroom from the very beginning of a student's educational process. I subbed in a first grade classroom (30 six-year-olds for 8 hours). The students had no playground because their school sat on the edge of two major intersections and the building itself took up 1/2 of a block. This meant NO RECESS. No chance for little bodies to burn off some of the energy they accumulate sitting in desks doing their school work. These students received gym class only ONCE per week (and we wonder why obesity is becoming a major factor in young people!).

The vast majority of the day was spent trying to maintain order in the classroom. I managed to maike it through the regular teacher's lesson plans, but it was a major struggle to do so. The behavioral problems in the classroom are phenomenal - and I'm not just talking about regular six-year-old energy - there are kids with *serious* behavioral problems mixed into the classrooms. I left the school that afternoon, wondering how in the world these children manage to learn anything in such a chaotic environment (the teacher's aids assured me that the regular teacher had much better control of the classroom than I did - thank goodness!).

And then I started thinking about my own students. If they started out this way, then what was middle school or high school like for them? I'm going to substitue again, and perhaps I'll get the opportunity to do it in a high school and see what my students have been up against.

In any case, I'm hoping that somehow, in some small way, I'll be able to give my first year Composition students some useful skills that will serve them well as they move on in the community college system and out into the world. I can't change the past, but I can help them construct a new way of looking at the future. I hope.