Am I Getting Promoted

Question asked by a student toward the end of the fifth grade school year.

                                              Am I Getting Promoted?

        It was close to the end of my first year of teaching.  To say the least it had

 been a very interesting year.  Despite four years of college, I felt I had learned

 more about teaching in this year than in the preceding four.

       Being so close to the end of the school year   both the students and the teachers

 were thinking about getting promoted to the next grade.   In Paterson at that

 time,at least in my school, we were told that if a student was failing they should be

 retained only if we thought they would benefit from another year in the same

 grade.  On the other hand if a student were failing or doing poorly, but the teacher

 felt that retention would not be beneficial, the child should be promoted.

     It was against this background that I was approached by Ben, one of my Latino

 students.   Ben was a very likable boy.  Big for his age and for the fifth grade.  He

 was doing about average work.  Most of his difficulty was in reading and writing.  I

did extra work with him on those and found that the only time he read or even

spoke English was while he was in school.   At home they only spoke Spanish.

     Generally fifth graders are between ages 10 - 12 years old.  Ben told me was he

15. and he asked me if he was getting promoted.  I was very surprised, his grades

 were good, not great, but there was nothing that would give me reason to consider

 retaining him in the fifth grade.

     "Why do you ask, Ben?"

     "I'm turning 16 this summer and if i don't get promoted my father wants me to 

     drop out of school and get a job."

I was shocked, but of course I told him he was getting promoted and he should stay

in school.

   

      

      

Reviews

[barleygirl]

This is such a heart-warming / heart-wrenching story! It's that contrast of feelings that makes your simple storytelling come alive. This is what is meant by: "trust your material" . . . this is such an intensely human story, there's no need to dramatize. You told it simply & perfectly, so that the reader is completely pulled in different directions over what has happened to this kid in school. Great job of laying the groundwork for how things went for you & for teachers in general, before you introduced this kid's particular story. Such injustices are just as damaging as being abused like I was. There's no way to compare all the different ways kids can be damaged by unthinking adults! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Dave]

Margie - I'm sure I made it clear that this was a very true story. Unfortunately it wasn't until years later that schools began to take into account the language difficulties some students have.
Take care - Dave

[Dave]

I'm going to relate another true story about Jesus. I'll post it in a bit. "Jesus gets retain and THEN!"

[barleygirl]

I love how you've been pumping out some great anecdotal stories in the last couple months!

[Dave]

Thank you for the encouragement! I keep reflecting on things that happened when I was still teaching.

[barleygirl]

Your teaching vignettes are the BEST! *smile*

[Dave]

I'm so glad you like them.
Take care - Dave

[Samuel Dickens]

It's good that you sent him on, but of course there was no reason not to. With his circumstances, it's amazing that he did so well. As I am aware, not every student has an ideal home life.

[Dave]

Unfortunately in that school the not ideal home was the norm.
Thanks for reading - and take care - Dave