Friday. Fifth period geography. The phone rang.
The caller asked for a student. He was present. Then the caller explained that the boy's name had been left off of the list of those who were excused for some sort of basketball game, so could I please excuse him?
I sent the boy on his way. And then I stewed. Because, really? And I need to explain why this whole think rankled for me.
The school has various sports teams. The usual ones. And daily there is some game someplace. There are always students who need to leave a class early so they can go to their game. This is so commonplace that I've never needed to mention it before.
Usually, what happens on these days is that a student or a couple of students will inform me that they have to leave for their game at such-and-such a time. (It's usually more of an ask. They never demand this.) And I nod my head and say okay and to give me a heads up as they leave.
What bothered me was that the boy in this case never said a word to me. Because, if he had come to me at the beginning of the period and said he had to leave, I would have said okay.
In fact, there was a girl who had a soccer match to get to. She had to leave early. And she did.
But this boy? Had to be called out of class? Didn't even attempt to go before the phone call? Said nothing to me about the game?
And the idea that his coach had to call me to get the student released just...
Someone has got to take more initiative if he wants to remain in athletics. It's not my job to remember these things. It's his.
Of course, this is one of the boys who's not doing much in class and has to be reminded to do his work and not scroll on his phone.
He won't last long in athletics with that work ethic.
The first place my non-trusting brain went was legitimacy. I taught K-8 so had any number of this sort of excuses, but they always were accompanied with something in writing. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteThe coaches always send out emails with the list of students who need to be released. As a sub, I don't always get those. (I managed to finagle my way onto the email list at one school, but only one.) If I'm day-to-daying, I keep a list of who left and when, so if they were lying, they will be caught.
DeleteI had to wonder too, who was calling. Sounds like it was actually the coach. Hopefully he'll start taking a little initiative.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I recognized his voice. And he identified himself. I have the advantage of being a regular sub, so I know who most of the teachers are. It wasn't some rando.
DeleteWhy do they have sports scheduled during class time?
ReplyDeleteThe sports are scheduled for the last period of the day. Sometimes they have away games, so for travel time, it'll eat into the previous period. Sometimes. While having students leaving is regular, it isn't the same sports each time. A particular student might have to leave class early one day in a week.
DeleteYou would think the student would remember and ask if he could leave when it was time. Hopefully the student gets more mature as time goes by and takes a little more initiative.
ReplyDelete