Learn With ThemJoel Weber's learning, teaching, growth, teens, & Holden High School blog
|
(circa 1996)
When my son Roy was a junior at Oakland Tech, he made the Junior Varsity basketball for the first time. They were in preseason when the Oakland teachers went out on strike. The district decreed that you couldn’t play sports on days you weren’t in school. Athletes were required to cross the picket line. One day I came home before my wife Julie. Roy told me that he and his friends had figured out that they could sneak in the side of the school to get their attendance slips signed, then sneak back out, but still be able to play ball. The teachers didn’t have pickets on the side of the school. I told him it was important to support the teachers on strike and not to cross the picket line or go into school at all. We went back and forth for awhile, and finally he thought a minute and said, “Well, honestly, if someone would tell me not to cross the picket line, then I won’t.” I thought a minute, and being a lifelong alternative school teacher, said, “I don’t want to tell you not to cross the picket line; I want you to decide for yourself not to cross.” Our conversation ended there; Roy went downstairs to do homework. Julie came in a little while later and I told her the whole story. She immediately marched downstairs and said, “Roy, don’t cross the picket line.” And so he did not. Very determined and clear Julie and Roy were. Giving kids options and freedom is not always the way, and not the only way, clearly. End of story.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Copyright Joel B. Weber 2013 forward. Disclaimers: This blog is not affiliated with Holden High; views are my own. I have no official connection to Holden other than Director Emeritus and friend. Dates and many student names have been changed; facts have not. Archives
December 2014
Categories |