TO SPEAK YOUR MIND

‘It doesn’t make a difference’, he wearily explained. It took a great deal of effort for him to stay awake this morning as we sat down to a breakfast of polenta with maple syrup. And coffee. All he wanted was to go back to bed.

‘You should at least try’, I wanted to encourage him to do everything he was able to do.

‘I did. She doesn’t care’, he replied.

As much as I tried stepping back from intervening on his behalf this year, there were times I found I needed to do so. This morning was one such time, as it was greatly affecting his grades. And his sleep. So, I sat down and typed an email to my son’s Entrepreneurship teacher:

‘Throughout this school year, Sage has brought to my attention that group assignments are not being completed by all members. Not only in his group, but other groups as well. That has resulted in everyone getting a ‘0’ for the project, even if one or two members have done their part. Sage let me know that he has brought this up with you, but that nothing has been done about it.

In addition, he has mentioned that not all group members sit at the same desk, which does not foster a team environment. Sage has observed that other students sit around on their phones playing games and not contributing to their groups.

Last night, after Sage returned from his OCPE class, he worked on ads for his team’s assignment as he feared that the other members would cause another poor grade for him. He finally went to bed at 23,00 which has greatly impacted his sleep. He took off-campus PE so that he could take Entrepreneurship as he thought it would teach him how to set up his own business one day.

The point of teaching entrepreneurship should be to show students how to set up a business. That would include demonstrating how all members of a group should be contributing to the success of a business.

I hope that for future students of this class, the lessons of teamwork will be emphasized so that everyone gets a more accurate picture of how entrepreneurs work in the real world.’

‘…I think she saw the email’, I looked over to my phone and saw it light up, the ringer having been turned off as I sat in front of my two monitors at work. My son texted during his first period class, which happened to be Entrepreneurship.

‘That’s good’, I wrote back. I smiled to myself, glad that a new lesson will be added to his school experiences this year.

‘She asked if I did it by myself and I said yes so only im getting credit’, he continued. I could imagine a smile of victory on his face as well.

‘Thank you for your honesty’, I wrote back. I was afraid that he would give everyone else the credit they did not deserve.

‘Your welcome’, he replied. I hoped he was starting to understand that you have the power to make a change. That you cannot simply sit and complain unless you have exhausted all other options to better your situation.

‘Sometimes it does make a difference to speak your mind’, I wanted to make him know that even if nothing changed, he still made the effort. That way, he would know that the grade he got, he deserved. Though I never got a reply from the teacher, I knew the message went through. And that is all that matters.