One of my students -Pamela (not her real name) – is on a remediation plan for some offense. She did something wrong. So she has to get a signed blue note from each of her teachers every day, as a way to keep tabs on her. The grade has to be reported on the blue slip.
She is my best student. Watching her listen in class is poetry. Her grades are three F’s and two A’s. The F’s are predominantly in classes which require only the left hemisphere of the brain, the linear analytical memorization classes. The A’s are in French and Geometry, which require the whole brain.
Her counselor told me that she is going to try to graduate from high school and that she has hope, in spite of a very bad home life (counselor is not allowed to tell but she said it is b-a-d). My question is, what would become of this girl in the game of analysis and memorization that she would have encountered had she been enrolled in a book based class, one of those like they did in the last century? 4 F’s and one A might be too much for her to try, to not give up on life.