One of my students finally returned after a few weeks of absence due to strep throat and told me that he was not going to be doing anything today, because he was feeling bad and wanted to be up front with me.
I, of course, asked, "Why?"
Without hesitation he confided, "One of my good friends got shot to death yesterday."
"You know that you've got to get away from that life," I gently scolded since he is the biggest drug dealer at the school. "At JobCorps there was this student from the gangs of Stocton that was so scary that none of the JobCorps teachers would teach him. Four of his brothers were in jail for murder. I saw that he was a leader, not just a thug, and taught him to lead for good, and he passed high school math for the first time under my tutelage and got his high school diploma. He had bullet holes in one of his shirts from a day when a lot of his friends were killed. He left his gang and chose a different, legit life."
"My uncle is also in jail for murder, and I already got out of my gang."
"Well now you've got to get away from your friends, because they're just going to drag you down and aren't going to be happy about your success. You've got to go to college and study business, because you're wonderful at delegating and running a business." (In reference to the fact that all the administration has been watching him, and he's never been caught.)
"Yeah, I'm good with numbers. I definitely am going to college and studying business."
"Well you have a lot going for you. Just stay out of trouble."
Just as I finished those words of advice, the head of campus security came in to get after him for selling drugs at break. No one, of course, could pin down how he did it, but a huge girl fight arose over money right at the end of break---indicative of deals having been made.
When he came out of the interrogation, he actually hung around me the rest of the class as I helped his female friend finish up her oak chest's 45 degree cuts. It was nice to start to slowly turn someone from a future of taking life to one of living a legit life again.
P.S. To my blog readers: If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960 Thank You!
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