Favors

I worked with a high school student yesterday on their math homework. I had not worked with this student before, and the first words out the student's mouth were, "I'm no good at math." That's not the first time I've heard that out of a student's mouth, and I'm sure I have many more times to look forward to hearing that too.

As I started working with the student, I found out a little more about him. He is an athlete, and was quick to talk about football. This student was quickly gravitating towards the jock archetype in my head.

By the way, "jock" isn't necessarily a bad title in my head. I am a big sports fan, and I was interested to hear about this student's football career. I think sports can be very powerful and educational, and often they are. However, with the fame and glory around athletics, they are also prone to corruption.

In particular, the student I worked with yesterday might have already experienced a taste of it. About halfway through the worksheet, he told me his math teacher last year was a big supporter of the football team - so big that the student thinks the only reason he "passed" is because he is on the football team.

I don't know the teacher, and I didn't see any of this student's math work from last year. I have no idea what really happened. That doesn't really matter though. Perception is reality, and this student perceived that he got a favor because he plays football.

In the end, all I really did was point at a helpful formula in the student's textbook, and that's almost all he needed to figure out the assignment. He was incredibly thankful though. He said it is the first time he has got an assignment done in a long time. There were fist bumps after every other problem or so (he is an athlete after all). This student was clearly enthused to get his math homework done, and to do the work himself. He even flashed remarkable mental math abilities, commenting that he doesn't like to take shortcuts with his work.

I worked with the student for maybe 15 minutes, but it was fascinating. I am inclined to believe that this student was passed through the system for some reason, and perhaps it was football. It also seems reasonable to assume that the math teacher thought it was better to pass him through than not.

However, the strategy backfired. Is it that surprising this student had no confidence in his math abilities, when he thinks he didn't earn the math grade he got last year? Furthermore, I don't have a great feel for how much the student likes math, but he clearly demonstrated a good work ethic, a desire to learn the material, and the potential to master the content. That doesn't sound to me like the type of student that needs to be passed through any class.

I think anyone would say that a teacher isn't doing a student a favor by giving free rides. However, I think people tend to assume that the alternative meets some resistance from the student. Clearly, at least in some cases, that isn't so.