I really wanted an interesting title for this post. I thought about it for a while and this saying just kept running through my head and I realized it was true.
Jealousy:
Rafe's class was, in my opinion, an anomaly. I've been battling with my frosh to read Romeo & Juliet for two weeks now and have to babystep them through it. It is tedious language and it took me years to get comfortable with it. How in the hell is he getting these young kids to not only read it but enjoy it and comprehend it? In short, it's not fair.
Romeo and Juliet is a great story. There's love, death, Leonardo DiCaprio, hatred...it's these 14 and 15 year olds lives. Forget Hamlet and his damn monologues and supposed psychotic break; teen angst is where it's at.
It was nice to see that Rafe had a good rapport with his kids. It's encouraging and heartwarming and blah blah blah. I want MY kids to have the same eager attitudes towards Shakespeare, hell, towards any book that his did. I can only hypothesize that his kids wanted to learn because they were inner-city castoffs. Maybe with the risk of losing everything dangling right in front of them they decided to take a chance with academic success. I know for a fact that every single kid in my freshmen class could do well if they just put the effort in.
Contempt:
I was slightly annoyed when I found out that the movie was glamorized. I want to see kids beating each other up, throwing paper around their class, spilling drinks, tripping one another, failing, passing, taking tests, walking through the hallway. I want real life not some dramatized edited cut and paste version.
We all have great days. We all have days that we wish we could go back and re-do. Which days do we have more of? How many yards of tape are laying on the editing room floor?
Sure, we learn from our mistakes. That's a given. Why can't we learn from other people's mistakes? Isn't that why "America's Funniest Home Videos" is still on the air?
I'm not saying he's a bad teacher in any way. I'm more upset that downs weren't shown along with the ups. It's very...disappointing.
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2 comments:
Gary,
I must say, I agree with you on this one. I watched the video a few weeks back, but I can't say I really felt all that different. It was great to see the examples he has with the successful outcomes of his class performances. But, I am a career "mistake man." I can have all kinds of successes in anything I attempt, but unless someone takes the time to reward me for something, I rarely remember the successes as much as I do the times when I am on edge wondering what I could have done differently because I screwed something up.
Rafe does have an amazing presence and his kids reflect his passion. That's what teachers are paid to be and do. We're on a mission to inspire creativity and initiative. We do so through purpose, motivation and direction. This guy does it well and I commend him. Just as I saw with the lady from Freedom Writers. She was up here in AK recently and put on a seminar talking about her experience with her one student Maria. Again, commendable but what are were her real failures that weren't glamorized in a Hollywood special.
I guess it's human nature to be skeptical or apprehensive with a lot of media these days. I can appreciate the value of the success, but I am too cautious to buy in to the commitment that some of these glory pieces provide.
The teachers portrayed in the videos are not responsible for editing and content, but even so, who needs to see a documentary of failures?...that is how teachers are portrayed on a regular basis. Rafe's students' love of learning (and love of Shakespeare) did not come at once...trust has to be built and that comes through positive reinforcement with a dollop of corrective measures along the way. You'll have a chance to query him about his mistakes in class when he calls in...and I guarantee they exist. And, I promise you that being impoverished inner city kids of mostly Asian and Hispanic descent does not automatically qualify one as an engaged learner. Those qualities are a direct result of the modeling and care provided by Rafe.
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