What’s 16 minus 6 again?

[Izzy Charlton]

There were a few students who really stood out to me during my time tutoring in Mr. Wiebe’s class. For the purposes of this post, I will refer to them as Lucas and Dylan. Both Lucas and Dylan are students who frequently miss class, and are not incredibly attentive when they do manage to show up. While I praise Mr. Wiebe for his ability to connect with students who are struggling in his class, it is clear that these two students need more frequent one-on-one help than Mr. Wiebe is able to provide. Because of this, I spent substantial time working with them, trying to get them up to pace. Lucas was quarantined the week before I started tutoring and was behind mainly because he wasn’t able to physically be in class. Lucas seemed a lot more willing to put in the work, even though he and Dylan did get sidetracked often. Even though he didn’t seem optimistic in his outlook on school, I still sensed a bit of eagerness in him. In contrast, Dylan was completely pessimistic and seemed to have completely given up on school. Lucas, however, was trying his best but wasn’t quite able to figure everything out.

Now that you have an idea of who I was working with, I want to describe my unforgettable tutoring moment. It was a bright and early morning (as it always is, I visit Mr. Wiebe during 1st and 2nd periods), and some students seemed especially weary during class. One of these students was Lucas, whose eyelids kept drifting down as Mr. Wiebe continued to talk. The main activity for that class period was completing a worksheet that required students to calculate the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons given the isotope of a certain element. Over the course of my tutoring, I learned to notice the students who are staring into space or blankly looking at their paper. I saw that his eyes were glazed over as he stared at his paper and I approached him, asking if he had any questions. He responded that he had “all the questions,” as he didn’t understand how to do any of it. I was glad he had accepted my help, because not all students do. I started to walk him through the calculations, explaining where he could find the information he needed on the periodic table. He nodded slowly, as if he was not completely certain. I walked him through the first problem, step-by-step. Lucas seemed to be getting the hang of it, as he could backtrace everything we did for the first problem and do the next problem on his own. As I watched him do the next problem, it was clear that he understood how to find the information, but his calculations seemed a little off. I asked him to walk me through his steps, and sure enough, he had done everything we did together in the previous problem. When we got to the end, however, he made a clear subtraction mistake. I asked him aloud what 16 minus 6 was, as he wrote down 8 on his paper. I was expecting him to say 10 out loud, because getting caught up in the math on paper can lead to some easy mistakes. However, he responded, “Eight… Isn’t it eight?” Mind you, this is a ninth grader. I know that he knows how to subtract, as he’s shown in previous classes. Dylan, who sits behind him, gave a chuckle and made a snarky comment under his breath. I prompted Lucas again, more quietly (to avoid embarrassing him), telling him not to overthink it. He then said, “Ohhhh! It’s twelve. Yep it’s gotta be twelve.” Seeing the uncertain look on my face, he switched back to eight. I gently reminded him that everyone has brain farts and it’s okay to use a calculator if he needs it. He would be given one on the test, so it was more than fine to use it, even if for such a simple subtraction. As he typed in “16-6”, the calculator immediately returned “10.” Immediately, he realized what a simple mistake he had made. Lucas put his hands on his head, groaning. “That was such a stupid mistake,” he said, “But I just can’t think.”

I knew that Lucas was perfectly capable of subtracting 6 from 16; I had worked with him plenty of times before to know that. It was early in the morning- first period starts at 7:50 am. I asked Lucas what was up, assuming that he was just tired because it was first period. He told me that he only got a few hours of sleep last night. Thinking of my own little brother who stays up way too late playing video games, I nodded sympathetically. Then, unexpectedly, Lucas added, “I had to go to work at 5:30 this morning.”

That comment really shocked me. Lucas couldn’t have been more than 14 or 15 years old, and he was getting up early to go work a two hour work shift before coming to school. No wonder he couldn’t do a simple calculation like 16-6. This moment really showed me a glimpse at Lucas’s life outside of the school day. I had been working with students like Lucas who were struggling with school, but I had never truly understood what might be putting them behind. I knew that these kids were just as intelligent as their peers, but they had external factors working against them (like socioeconomic status, in Lucas’s case). It really added an extra layer of understanding to everything I had been noticing in the students throughout my tutoring experience. When a student is waking up insanely early to go to their job, it is unsurprising that they might fall asleep in class. This isn’t a personal grudge against the teacher or the class, but just an aftereffect from all of the other stresses in their lives.

This moment really made me consider the point of education. Theoretically, education should be a place to lift up these students who are struggling and give them the tools they need to succeed in life. However, there are other external pressures on these students that teachers often don’t take into consideration. Many high school teachers would not hesitate to assign homework assignments everyday, even when the students do not all have the same amount of time or resources to do so outside of class. Thankfully, Mr. Wiebe’s homework assignments are pretty minimal and are usually able to be completed in class. However, considering that students have seven different classes every single day, they may not be able to finish all of the assignments if their job takes up hours of their time. While schools claim to help these students succeed, it is clear that they don’t take into account the external pressures these students face. Because of this moment, and many others, this is one of the main conclusions I have come to: the classroom is supposed to be an equitable space, so teachers must be actively aware of the external pressures students face. These students are in school for seven hours a day and for some students, their work day doesn’t stop there. Lucas is a prime example of how students face external pressures that can compromise their academic work. Because you cannot possibly control what students do outside of the school day (whether it be going to extracurriculars, working at their job, looking after their younger siblings, or something else), it is not fair to expect students to have the same amount of time or energy to do homework. These institutions are supposed to be helping students get a leg up, not punishing them for external factors beyond their control.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Izzy Charlton.

[Author]

Posts