This will be the last blog about student-teaching, and then I'm going to start blogging strictly about exotic cheeses.
My experience at SHS could be summed up in the following facts and figures...
I parked everyday in the small, ten space lot directly in front of the school. It is reserved for visitors only. Even the principal walks her ass from the large lot in the back, all the way to her office in the front. I was certainly not supposed to be parking there, but it was just so damned convenient. I decided I would park there until someone noticed, and then told me to park where I was supposed to. I feigned ignorance like this for 6 weeks. It took SHS administration that long to notice my truck parked twenty feet from the entrance, every day. This should give you an idea of how well the institution has its act together. It finally got back to me when one of my co-operating teachers asked if that was where I was parking. I probably could have denied it, and gotten away with parking there for another week. At least.
The SHS vending machines had space for about 60 different junk food options. About 12 of these were reserved for Flaming Hot Cheetos, and the rest for either candy or other salty snacks that contained the words/phrases "Jalepeno" "Extra Hot" and "Buffalo" in their descriptions. These vendors know that they're doing, because a lot of students would eat four or five bags of the above sodium-bombs for breakfast and lunch, everyday. I have even witnessed Flamin' Hot Cheetos used in courtship, with a student garnering attention from a desirable young lady by giving her his "extra bag" every day. May they have a long and fruitful relationship. This epidemic is not an SHS exclusive phenomenon though, especially in other working-class schools. A friend of mine working in Peoria Public Schools has even graded papers that were covered in the signature bright red residue of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I guess the snack sometimes makes it into the dinner meal rotation as well.
On a very important day of class, I stood and faced the flag while the school mumbled through the pledge of allegiance to start the day. I mouthed the words to the pledge, but was actually saying: "Hail Mary, full of grace..."
On a culminating research paper that I admit I could have taught better, one student wrote an opus entitled: "ILLEGAL IMIGANTION". You can imagine the masterful writing that followed.
Throughout the course of my student-teaching, I witnessed four or five fights (one of which included a deaf boy surprise-jumping on the back of a good-sized Hispanic tough and attacking his face; another included four Hispanic girls in a free-for-all that made it difficult for a spectator to figure out who, if anyone, was on who's side). There were also two fire-alarms pulled. Now, most schools have fire-alarms pulled as a prank. These were pulled due to fires being started in bathroom garbage cans; part of a rash of these incidents stretching back to the beginning of the school year.
Part of me feels like a sell-out who wants to chalk-up Illinois public education as a waste of time, and no fun at all. Part of me feels like I would be giving up on the all of the students that clearly need help. Yet, a bigger part of me feels that If I were to do anything I wasn't 100% sure of, would be a mistake. An even bigger still part of me wants a glass of wine, and then tell you all about it...
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