I interviewed the grandmother of one of my students in my worst class. “Justin” doesn’t misbehave, but often I’ll come by his desk and he’s done no work since I last came by. Apparently he’s been in trouble for fights in previous years, but that hasn’t been an issue in my class. I’ve called her several times about his grades (not turning in assignments, and not paying attention in class etc) and she has been on him about that.
We met at Western Sizzlin, a buffet restaurant in Batesville after she’d gotten off of her shift at Walgreens. We briefly discussed what Justin should be doing that evening to study for his test. Then I asked her some questions about herself.
She’s lived in Sardis for all of her life, although she’s only lived in the town for about 10 years. She has four children and several grandchildren. Justin is the only grandchild that she is responsible for as a primary caretaker. I did not ask why he does not live with his mother. The other four grandchildren attend school in Memphis, Independence, and South Panola. I asked her what she thought about Sardis. She replied:
It’s not a progressive place. Maybe because it went down a whole lot from when I was growing up in Sardis. Not a booming town.... After 8 o’clock, the grocery store closes. If they don’t have it at the dollar store you have to go to Batesville....It is different now because it’s really nothing there. Children get out of school for the summer. There are no centers to go to. Nothing to occupy their mind. They don’t have anything to if they don’t have a part time job. They need some kind of activity to occupy themselves. They don’t have nothing.
At one part, they had where the school was taking them to Oxford. They really enjoyed going over their - so there’s nothing for them to do. These days you have to keep a teenager, not only a teenager, but children [away from bad activities].
I asked if teenagers faced a different situation from when she was growing up. She replied that it was, and that it was different from when her children were growing up as well:
The children was different. There is so much going on in the world that keeps their mind going different places. More teenagers killing themselves, and gangs. If something interest them in that. They get bored and disgusted. Peer pressure. Like that.
I thought what she said about not having anything to do in the summer was interesting, and I would agree with her. Although teens should be able to relax in the summer, no one really wants to have nothing to do for days on end. Although the school provides extracurriculars during the year, they might not appeal to all of the students, and they do not meet during the summer for the most part.
I asked her about her opinion of the school. She took awhile to answer:
I just feel that... mmmm... I can’t put it into words. Let me think about it for a moment. Since the state turned over, or whatever. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure there. Dropping the kids down to where they can pass with a D, That’s really not. That’s not pushing them to learn more. They’re just getting by with a D. The ones that can, they ain’t gonna do no better.
I thought this was an interesting answer. It’s true that there are many students who are only concerned with passing, and will only rise as high as the bar is set. Maybe the importance of graduation rates has made teachers more likely to want to pass a student. I had expected her to have noticed other changes that have happened over the last couple of years such as increased discipline, or the emphasis on state tests.
I asked her about the state tests. Her student had failed the English II test last year. We talked about what was being done for those students.
I have noticed - I talked to him, and it look like they have more classes. More something. Don’t look like they have enough tutoring.
I mentioned the “Learning Strategies” class he was in to prepare to take the English II Test again.
On Ms. Taylor - I talked to her. They supposed to notify me. They had to go to summer school. So I’m asking - what do you do? Somebody should have been teaching them. Why were they .... They had to come in. He had to go for two weeks from 7 to 12. The bus picked him up in the morning.... When I talked to him, it sounded like they was just on the computer.
They’re just gonna sit their in front of the computer. That was easy money to me.
I asked her what she thought about discipline at the school. Her answer was interesting. She did not seem to be in favor of the increased severity with which infractions were treated.
I know Justin got expelled form School. He got expelled. the boy hit him and they got to fighting. They say Jalen was promoting it. They didn’t pass no licks, I don’t think they should have been expelled. They expelled him for three days.
She said that she thought that he should have been put in ISS instead. I asked about the reputation of North Panola. She responded, "There’s been a lot of stuff going on up there. There’s a lot of ... It starts with the parents too. If they ain’t getting the training at home, what do you expect when they go to school?”
We talked about her own work experience. She’s worked in retail, as an aid in someone’s home, and in factories. She said she had prefer the home help job taking care of an elderly woman:
I worked at the job for about 3 years. It just came a part of family. I could do more her than her daughter. I could go in there and talk to her sometimes and calm her down. She died, so she didn’t need me .... so I found the job at Walgreens. I like my job and I like my hours so I just stay there and work.
My grandfather had MS for several decades before he died, and my grandmother had two women who helped out, and we talked about how those people do really become part of the family and how good it had been for my grandmother to be able to live in the house with my grandfather because of those women.
She didn’t like the idea of an honors class, because she felt that it somehow gave a negative impression of the students in the other classes:
It still seems like - if you have an honors class, and you have a regular class, you are kinda degrading those students.....When I was going to school, we was all in together - and - you don’t know who.... Some of the honors students didn’t go to college - but they were smart, but they was honors students. We was all their together....I didn’t go myself - I dropped out - still, that’s what happened.
It would help if the honors students helped - if I don’t know something -I’m gonna get next to the honors student. It just hit me - looks like you’re putting them up somewhere. You look at me different than you look at them.
I did talk to her about how differences in reading ability made it difficult for everyone to read the same thing. I talked about how I made students read silently to themselves because they would need to read things by themselves in the future, and I was trying to get them better at that. She admitted that she did not like reading herself:
I do not like reading - that is pitiful for me -it’s the worst part of me - I just don’t - I got to the place where I just don’t like reading. If I really don’t understand what I’m reading - I’m going to pick it up, and put it down again.
I see this as part of the problem. No matter how much this woman cares about her grandson doing well in school in the abstract, if no one instills a love of reading early, or is able to help their student with readings, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to reading. Someone the cycle has to be broken.
