I believe in a previous post that I may have stated that one should always believe a teacher over a student, or at least find out what really happened before you start saying that a teacher has done something to that student or that the teacher was wrong. Well, I may have to edit said statement. One of my advisees received yet another check today (he's on his 8th one, 3rd in a week) due to an incident in the locker room. His story didn't sound "check worthy," so I emailed the teacher to get his side. Perhaps it was the response that I received that made me a bit wary of what really happened - "As far as I am concerned there is only one side of the story when it is between a student and a teacher. I hope this clears things up." Ok now, there's usually two sides to every story - what one person perceives to be truth is different than what another person perceives to be truth. No, whether or not the "truth" is really the truth is what needs to be determined.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that the teacher is lying, or that the student isn't giving me some story to try to stay out of trouble. It's just interesting to me because he came to me directly after lunch to tell me about the check, instead of waiting until I caught him and reprimanded him for it like he usually does. I'm just saying that the two stories are at the opposite ends of extreme, and I've never had cause to assume this child is lying to me. Either way, I know it will be taken care of at home, which is more than I can say for many of my students who may be in the same situation.
In talking to the parent, he asked me why I believed the student over the teacher. I don't know. It's just that something about the whole situation doesn't really match up. The student may very well have been showing off and causing a commotion as he sometimes tends to do, but just the fact that he came to me and told me kind of puts a warning sign in my mind. Also, I guess I just really didn't appreciate the response the teacher gave me. To me, it almost says, "I really didn't need to give him the check, but I did, so this is what I'm going to say happened so that you and parents will punish him the way I think he should be since I have a chip on my shoulder about this particular student." Maybe not. I don't know what this teacher thinks about this student since I don't really work with him, but I do know some teachers tend to rag on certain students more than others. I know that I myself am guilty of that. I try to check myself and make sure I'm not always picking on those particular students or always showing my frustration, but that's not always easy either.
Either way, I'm sure it will all get worked out. I'm sure I'll get a report from the student tomorrow.
2 days until Spring Break (and only 50 projects to grade by Friday).
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