"The Students I Deal With" - A Guest Blog Post by an Alt. Ed Teacher

The students I deal with in our “Alternative Ed” school are just normal, everyday kids- they have hopes and fears and ambitions and likes and dislikes. On the surface they all kind of look the same, just like every other high school student. They tend to wear the same styles, talk the same slang (maybe have a bit more saltiness to their language. OK, maybe a lot more). But inside each one is unique, each one has a “story”. They won’t always tell that story, but each one has had a very unique life- just like all other high school kids.

                The one big difference is that they have been failures, for the most part, and the reasons for their failures are as varied as the kids themselves. They may have moved from school to school, dragged along by parents or guardians from state to state.  They may have been forced to miss lots of school days- to take care of an adult, or for a sibling- to work in the fields- to care for a parent- to care for their own child. They might be school failures because their home life was one of drugs and alcohol and they were caught in the middle. Maybe their parents are in prison in another state and they live here with grandparents or relatives, or in foster care.

                Maybe they come from great, loving, caring homes- and they themselves are to blame for turning to drugs.

                Maybe they have been allowed to play X-rated video games for 5 or 6 or 10 hours a day, and now, after several years of it their sense of reality is warped.

                Maybe they are caught up in the gang life.

                The list goes on and on. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, not to just them, but to the teachers who try and try to help them out of the darkness they are in.

                But some of them are great students! Many are ultra-creative: that right-brain, mentality that doesn’t quite mesh with “mainstream”.  Many get caught up and seem to go back into the big school and on with life very well.

                The story that grips me most is one like today’s. I could see it coming from afar- a cute little girl, hanging onto a guy last year- and he hanging all over her. This year, no guy around and the cute little girl is now hugely pregnant. The single mom parent speaks only Spanish. Who knows how they pay for the household expenses.  She starts Independent Study classes and excels! A smart kid! Then she doesn’t show up to Independent Study for a week. Then two weeks, then three. No phone calls, no contact. No one answers the home phone. Then, after three weeks the mom finally answers.  The baby came early, complications, all are in San Diego at Children’s Hospital. The smart, cute little girl now has a very complicated life, full of medical terms and doctors and big city trips on a bus and welfare forms and no support and no boyfriend and a very sick baby.  School is the last thing on her mind now.

                Some people tell me my job is a ministry. I think they are right.