Not So Golden Silence - Week 1

The first week of school is over and to be honest there were times when I never thought I would make it out with my sanity intact.
Day 1: Teachers always dream their students will be sitting on the edge of their seat, hanging on every word, and entirely too engrossed with our teaching to even try to interrupt or distract others by talking. Silence was my first day. Yet, it was not the silence of students waiting or engrossed. It was an eerie silence like how a scary movie’s music cuts out just before someone is killed. They did not talk me the teacher; they did not talk to each other; they did not talk at all. What would seem like a blessing in reality was a curse. How do you have a discussion about goals for your future when your kids don’t talk? How do you get to know them as people when they refuse to communicate, answer questions, look at you at all? Teens talk, they socialize, they communicate with each other all the time and yet these kids did not.
I have never seen the likes of what I saw in my classroom. There are 18 students scheduled to be in my class; only 7 showed up on that first day. First day of school and less than half are there. None of them even know why they are in a classroom with the same two teachers all day long. At first it did not even dawn on me that they wouldn’t know. Half way through they day one student said, “why we gotta be in this stupid class with you two all day?” I then understood; they truly had no idea what was wrong. So we discussed it and now I understand a bit more, most these students had everything against them from the start. *Deandre was not enrolled in school until age 7. *Sherri went to kindergarten and 1st grade, was never enrolled in 2nd grade and missed an entire year of school. She went on to 3rd grade and passed but failed 4th as a result of missing 2nd. One student has missed approximately 50 – 75 days of school every year since 3rd grade. Obstacles like these are put in place not by the students and it’s hard to not feel bad for them at first but you have to know it won’t help.
Day 3: We had a lockdown today because there were gunshots fired from the projects behind the school into the fields. They found two bullet casings. No one was trying to hurt anyone my guess, just bored and trying to cause a stir. I’m understanding the world they come form but they’re still silent.
Day 4: It hit me. These students are the ones that are not perfect by any means and yet they haven’t done anything bad enough to get kicked out yet. They are used to silence. They have sat in the back of most classrooms silent. They aren’t behavior problems so they just sit back and hope that they if they don’t cause too much trouble then their teachers will just up and pass them. Tragic really now that I think about it because for the most part it has worked for them.