What student’s suspension over clock reveals about teachers and students
*There are many opinions as to how the Irving, Texas student clock incident could have been handled differently. Chicago teacher Ray Salazar tells us that good teachers get to know their students and a good teacher could have known that young Ahmed Mohamed was an aspiring inventor. The arrest, the controversy and the heated argument would never have happened. VL
By Ray Salazar, The White Rhino
During the middle of the second week of school with my Chicago students, I proudly rattled off the first names of each student in all of my classes. This week, the third week, I’ll work on their last names. It takes time to learn over one hundred students’ names and to get to know them as individuals. So I wonder how much Ahmed Mohamed’s teachers knew about him and his inventing interests after a few weeks of school at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. Hearing about this 14-year-old student’s arrest and suspension for bringing a homemade clock to school reminded me about the importance of community building in our classrooms during the beginning of school.
[pullquote]”… Mohamed’s Dallas suburb faced “sweeping demographic change” and in 2009, a city councilman ran on an anti-immgration campaign and ousted the only council member with Latino roots in a city that is 40 percent Hispanic.”[/pullquote]Before teachers and school administrators begin the challenging tasks of teaching meaningful curriculum and carrying out an academic program, we have make sure we learn about our students as people. And we have to give them a chance to learn about us, too.
On the first day of school, I ask my students to write me a cover letter using a block or semi-block format that introduces themselves to me. I ask them to devote a few focused paragraphs to their academic history, their experiences with writing, and what they’d like to get out of the course. But the most important part of the letter is the last paragraph. There, I ask them to share anything that will help me understand them as a person. One optional question is, “How do you spend time outside of school?”
I wonder if Ahmed Mohamed’s English teacher, the teacher who reportedly feared his homemade clock was a bomb, asked the MacArthur students to do something similar. Maybe a letter assignment like this would have prevented the national and international scandal for the school.
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This articlewas orginally published in Chicago Now.
Since 1995, Ray has been an English teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. In 2003, Ray earned an M.A. in Writing, with distinction, from DePaul University. In 2009, he received National Board Certification. His writing aired on National Public Radio and Chicago Public Radio many times and have been published in the Chicago Tribune and CNN. For thirty years, Ray lived in Chicago’s 26th Street neighborhood. Today, he lives a little more south and a little more west in the city with his wife, son, and daughter.
[Photo c0urtesy of WITN]