The Boy with the Broken Halo

"Sinister Kid," The Black Keys

I signed up to teach summer school for the money. 3 weeks, 12 days. 4 days a week, 5 hours a day, to make enough money to cover a 10-day trip to Peru? Totally worth it. Perhaps not surprisingly, my expectations were relatively low. A class full of kids who had failed? Behavior problems? Lack of reading and writing skills? No parental involvement? Defiance? Apathy? I prepared for the worst, arming myself with what I deemed "appropriate" retorts and threats and punishments before the first day, first bell. A short speech about what I wouldn't tolerate. A business attitude and a hefty agenda. A "get in, get out" attitude.

The "bad kids" of Carlsbad High School didn't meet my expectations. Or rather, they did meet them-- but then proceeded to exceed them-- obliterate them. These kids were funny. And hard-working. Bright. Positive. Willing.

Case in point:

Jamie: After Simon's death?" [flips back to mentioned scene] "You know how we talked about how he's the Christ-figure? Do you think the little phosphorescent creatures '"busying themselves around his head" are supposed to represent a halo?

Fabian: I can't find the right word to describe Samneric. I want to say that they aren't really leaders, but "followers" doesn't seem right. I'm trying to find a word that means they aren't very good at standing up for themselves. They're not assertive. What's that word?

Micah: My old English teacher said that the reason there aren't girls on the island is because it would take a lot longer for the girls to show their savage side. So, the book would just drag on. But I don't think that's right. Girls can be catty and mean and vicious just as fast as guys can. Right? Maybe he didn't put girls on the island just because he didn't want to deal with any of that "she-likes-him-and-he-likes-her" drama. You know, to prove his point. I mean, really, his main goal is just to prove that all men have demons and beasts inside them, and sometimes gnarly situations bring them out.

Ricky: Maybe the Lord of the Flies represents more than just the evil inside all men. Maybe it's like the anti-Christ, because Simon has a conversation with it, and I'm pretty sure that's Biblical. I mean, it's supposed to be more than just "bad," right? Isn't it supposed to be Satanic? Pure evil? It's the exact opposite of Simon, which is why he has to be the character that faces it.

Savanah: Well, Simon has to die. Because William Golding didn't believe in pure goodness. No living person is 100% honest and 100% pure. Simon is, though, and by killing him Golding proves a person like that just can't exist in our society. It's pretty sad, actually.

Before I sing their praises too whole-heartedly from the rooftops, most of these kids made mistakes last year. They ditched class, or they didn't write the essays, or they chose not to come in for help when they were confused- time and time again. Some of them came from homes where attendance was stressed, but not education, and so therefore a passing grade was not expected. Some of them came from homes where parents were virtually never there, and when they were, they had bigger worries than their teenager's grades. The true purpose of summer school (in my eyes, at least) is to help the kids who don't have the necessary skill set build one. In reality, two of my 32 kids fit into that category, and both of those students (in my 12-day observation opinion) were simply re-classification errors: Put simply, they needed another year (or at least semester) in an ELD class. (Exhibit A; sample student-generated vocabulary sentence: "Obama is the precedent of the United States").

I don't mean to downplay the fact these kids needed to pay for their mistakes. They heard my frustrated "you don't belong here" speech at least twice a week, and I had one-on-one conversations with almost every one of them regarding how to ensure avoidance of the same situation next summer. But, that doesn't change the fact I was happily impressed every day. Guiltily, I quickly learned to suppress my completely unfair and judgmental stereotypes and instead focus on the fact that quite a few students wanted to discuss the novel, beamed after positive reinforcement, and "needed another independent book, because I've already finished the first two you gave me."

These kids showed up and they didn't complain. They worked hard. They re-wrote paragraphs and really practiced embedding quotes. They read along, asked questions, and participated. They made me laugh and confessed to their self-inflicted mistakes regarding why they were enrolled in summer school in the first place.  They wrote about their dreams of veterinary school, world travel, and culinary arts.

I'm ashamed at how easy it was for me to "classify" this assorted group of kids into one singular category. But, at the same time, I'm proud of them for helping me understand just how large of a misconception that was. Laziness, absence, or language-barrier fueled, those "F" students proved themselves anything but these last three weeks. I just hope the realization wasn't only mine...