End of Institute: Lessons.

There was a girl in my class that I haven’t talked about much in these posts, and I would like to talk about her now. Since I can’t write her name here, I’ll call her Julia.

Julia came into our class reading on the higher end of the middle group of students, and she scored fairly well on her math pre-test compared to her classmates. When she raised her hand in class, she always had the right answer, and it was pretty clear that she knew what she was doing. When she wasn’t volunteering her answers, Julia stayed quiet, and did the work that we gave her. We didn’t really worry about Julia over the four weeks of summer school because we didn't have to.

When we got the final exams back, and finished the reading assessments, we were shocked. Julia had improved only one point on her reading, and was the only student in our class that had lost points in math. We were so surprised that we had her take the test again to see if it had just been a mistake. But, it wasn’t. She missed the exact same questions again.

Julia wasn’t a stand out student. She didn’t clamor for attention, she wasn’t far below grade level, and she didn’t blow us away with her obvious brilliance. She was somewhere in the great big middle, and because of that, we lost her. We assumed that she was doing just fine, that she understood what we were teaching because she did well enough every time. But really, in her silence she was really just staying under the radar. Over four weeks we didn’t teach her anything.

I know that I always root for the underdog. When I was teaching, I spent a lot of time ensuring that the lowest-performing students could keep up, that they were staying motivated, and that they weren’t giving up. I spent a lot of time making sure I wasn’t moving too slowly for my highest achievers, that they never did less than their best, and that they knew I expected great work from them. I didn’t spend much time I with the rest, and that included Julia because I thought she was doing... fine.

It’s no excuse, but I think this is how it is for people in general. We constantly celebrate those at the top – the rich and the famous. We constantly worry about and try to help those at the bottom – our tired, our poor. We forget about those in the great big middle – average Joe. We assume that they’re doing just fine, and they don’t need the help or the celebration. Our country has a rapidly shrinking middle class, and those that are still jobless 99 weeks after going on unemployment still can’t find work. But they’re in the middle, so they’ll be OK. They, like Julia, are sitting silently, so we don’t notice them struggling to make ends meet, just like I didn't see Julia struggling to understand.

I’ve talked a lot about the successes we had as a group in our classroom, and the achievement of students like Michael, Pauline, and Anita (not their real names) truly excites me. But, it is Julia’s experience that will never leave me.

Julia was not a success story, and luckily, one hapless summer school teacher won’t seal her fate. But, I joined Teach for America because I want to make sure all students get access to a great education. All really needs to mean all. Although I wish it had happened another way, Julia taught me that lesson, and it’s something that I need to keep with me in order to be a truly successful teacher, or even just a successful person.