The Learning Curve

The most amazing part of being a teacher is what you learn. 

Last Monday the VCE results came out.  Text messages went into overdrive, parents breathed collective sighs of relief and graduates all over Victoria jumped for joy and shed tears of disappointment.  I was awake by 6:04am, waiting for the flood of text messages letting me know that either all the hard work had been worthwhile or that I should seek alternative career options.

Some students did better than others.  In general the reality is, the more work a student puts in, the higher the grade.  However, natural talent, god-given brains and simple DNA also play a part.  Salt of the Earth is a wonderful young man.  He was not blessed with a flair for writing and he comes from a non-English speaking home.  This year he did particularly poorly in his first assessment task.  However, instead of adopting the always popular "Fuck it" attitude - something which I am an expert in - he decided to grab the proverbial reigns and spent the rest of the 2010 academic year pushing himself to do better.  He listened to every bit of constructive criticism and took on board every suggestion.  In the end however, he was disappointed with that little number which told him where he ranked in the subject.

For most students, particularly private school students this is the cue to start the tantrum.  "My teacher was an idiot.  I worked so hard.  I clearly wasn't prepared properly.  She never did this, she did too much of that.  My school sux..."  and on it goes.  And I must admit, I felt guilty.  I kept thinking about how I could have prepared Salt of the Earth better, what advice I should have given him that I failed to.  I so desperately wanted this tenacious young man to succeed, I assumed the fact that he didn't get the score we both wanted him to must have been my fault.

Knowing he had been disappointed by the result on Monday, I checked up on him yesterday.  He told me he had also been going over the year in his head, trying to work out where he had gone wrong, what he could have done better.  And then he thought about 2009.  And then he thought about 2008 and all those years that came before 2010.  He acknowledged that while he worked his arse off in 2010, in the years leading up to it he had pretty much ignored the subject.  He recognised that considering he only really worked for 9 months, it was a tad unreasonable to expect a better result than the one he achieved.

Salt of the Earth you are an amazingly mature young man.  You see the bigger picture and your place it.  You don't accept excuses but you're willing to see the reason and acknowledge the cause. 

Salt of the Earth you have taught me a great deal.  And let's face it, you were in the top 10% of the state.  Not bad for 9 months work.