Don't Judge

Don’t judge a student by their performance in school; you don’t always know where they’re coming from.

One student was complaining that their stomach hurt. They clutched it and doubled over in pain. I asked them what was wrong, where the hurt was and if it just started or if it had been hurting. The student explained that it hurt inside their stomach and that it had started out earlier in the morning but had only recently gotten worse. I informed my cooperating teacher (CT) about the situation and they said that we should reassure the student that everything was alright, but that we had better wait to see how they felt later.

As the day went on and we were heading to lunch, I noticed that none of my students brought lunches, had money or have lunch passes. I also noticed that for the two days that I’ve been there, the students didn’t have a snack time. As my CT and I were sitting at the writing center eating lunch I asked about the lack of lunch/snacks in the room. I brought up that when I was in elementary school we had snack everyday to curb our hunger until lunch, especially if we had the last lunch wave like my class does now. My CT informed me that all of the students that attended this elementary school were on free lunch and that there was free breakfast available from 7:30 to 7:55 if they got there. I sat there and thought for a moment about the amount of poverty and the resources the families of these children lacked if it was enough for the principal (or whoever decides things like that) that the whole school needed to be on free lunch.

My CT nodded at my amazement and then stopped and looked at me harder as a light bulb went off in their head. “You know our little buddy with the stomach ache? I had them wait until after lunch to see if it goes away because the majority of the times, their stomach aches turn out to be hunger pangs. Sometimes, if we have time, I feed them snack that I buy and keep in the room, but sometimes we don’t have time with all of this testing. Every minute is valuable, you know?” I nodded.

As I reflected back on my day today, I realized how privileged I was to grow up and go to school where I did. One of the reasons that I was able to learn so well, was that all of my basic needs were fulfilled. I had a roof over my head, three meals a day, a comfy bed to sleep in, and space that was my own to play in. So many of the students that attend this urban elementary school, don’t have basic needs that all children should have so learning isn’t always the first thing on their mind, and who can blame them? Perhaps, the reason that students act out, don’t do their work or surprise us with their behavior (like that student we had act out on the first day!) can’t be judged for the face value of their actions alone, because you don’t always know where they’re coming from.