Anna

Let’s called her Anna. Anna is one the best students in my History class. Her work is consistently of a high standard, she finishes work early, always wants to do extra, always wants to be pushed. She is academically probably a year ahead of her peers. She is mature enough to show kindness to other students who are struggling socially. She took it upon herself to befriend a recent arrival at the school with behavioral and social difficulties. Brilliant.

At parent-teacher interviews I got to meet Anna’s mother. She seems involved, interested and concerned with how her daughter is progressing. I get to give her the jam sandwich feedback – all sweetness and fluffy goodness. No issues from my end, apart from giving her extension work and encouraging her to read widely. Anna’s mother looks pleased. She gets up to go, hesitates a little, and then gives me the doorknob comment.*

“You know, Anna loves the class and her teachers. But she’s often so annoyed at how other students treat the classroom as a place to muck around and cause havoc. Sometimes she has said she wants to yell at them all to shut up”

I stumbled out an apology, all the while knowing that it was because the school had chosen to be inclusive, because they did not have structures and resources in place to support students who struggled with behavioral and social problems, because the discipline system did not support teachers with good follow up and consequences, these things were going to be around for a while. Because I was a first year teacher struggling with managing a class full of rowdy teenagers. I almost wanted to tell her to send her daughter to another school. But most of all I was embarrassed by the way the school and myself had let Anna down by allowing others to ruin her educational experience. I felt, for the first time, how deeply I needed to focus on the students who were doing excellently as well as those that were struggling, and wondered if I truly had to time, the energy and the resources to be able to do so. I realized again how important classroom management is, but also realized that it means nothing if not backed up by school wide policy and effective leadership.

It was a sobering moment. I want to do better in future. For Anna's sake.

*Doorknob comment: Doctors and therapists say that patients often wait until the very last moment of a session to reveal the most pertinent or important details of their issue.