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"An Apple for the Teacher"

I was given an apple today by Reynaldo and Raymundo, two bangers fresh out of juvie. Reynaldo smiled and said, "Here, an apple for the teacher."
"Yeah, you're supposed to eat it, mister."
I looked down at the apple and saw that it had been hollowed out where the stem was supposed to be and there was a hole in the side. The middle of the apple was black and it smelled like potent marijuana.
"Where'd you get this?"
"I found it," Reynaldo said.
"You guys were smoking weed out of this?"
"Not even, misters. We found it outside and brought an apple for the teacher."
"I ought to make you eat it," I said.
"That's what you do when the cops come, mister."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"The homie told me."
"Uh, huh," I said. "Right. Have a seat."
"Aren't you going to eat it?" Raymundo asked.
"Maybe later. I'm not that hungry right now."

I don't have to teach reproduction, Ryno. Most of my students have more kids than I have

You're right, Barzilla. Someone probably will take it on.

I find it funny whenever these feel good movies come out about teachers in inner-city schools overcoming the odds. Almost all of them exaggerate the truth.

I remember hearing that Jaime Escalante, the Calculus teacher featured in the Lou Diamond Philips' movie "STAND AND DELIVER" said that he was bothered by the movie because it didn't show what he accomplished accurately. The film shows students with absolutely no background in math entering Escalante's class at Garfield in East Los and then becoming great students.

Escalante was angry because he said that it took him ten long, hard years to build the Calculus program that made him famous. He had to get involved with the elementary and middle schools that fed into Garfield to make sure that the students he would teach knew the basics. Then, he was able to teach them. But when they walked in as they were, without any math skills or prior instruction, he failed as badly as the rest of us.

I think that's the biggest problem facing most high school teachers. The kids we receive don't often know the basics. My situation is different because my school serves first and second generation immigrants. I imagine there are similar challenges in Texas educating English Language Learners. It's hard enough to educate kids who can read and write proficiently.

In closing, I will say that in my Education program at USC, the professors put almost all of their focus on the elementary school teachers. Think about that. The high school teachers were pushed aside because, in their eyes, many students were so far behind when they entered high school that it didn't matter what we did.

If a girl wants to get out of my class all she has to say is, "I've got girl problems." No matter how upset I am, no matter how many other students I've refused to send to the bathroom, this excuse always gets me. I don't argue. I don't make a stink. I can only imagine what it would be like to coach girls. Though boys will offer some pretty lame excuses also.

I always liked coaching the kids who had the dad who'd coach them up at home. In my experience, those kids were coachable and better prepared than the kids who didn't have an adult figure pushing them to play well.

Now, I had a few friends whose fathers would really punish them for failing in sports. That wasn't cool because it made my friends really hate playing sports. One time, I'm not joking about this either, a buddy of mine was grounded for the entire weekend because he swung at and popped up on a 2-0 pitch that was out of the strike zone. Talk about teaching plate discipline.

That's extreme, but if all the dad is doing is helping his son with technique and training, it's a huge help to a coach. And the kid is usually a nicer, easier to work with player.