"AT-RISK..."
Some of you have asked what it was I did when I say that I taught "At-Risk" students. I taught in an alternative education setting and my students were teenagers who had not been successful in the normal classroom setting. Often it isn't the classroom which is the problem, but something happening in their lives - either way, they had lost credits in school and were "at-risk" of dropping out of high school. I taught teen-age mothers, ex-drug addicts, runaways who have returned, students who have been in jail, drop-outs who have realized the value of a diploma, etc. Our program offers them a chance to accelerate through their schoolwork ... mainly by cutting out teacher lectures. It is an individualized self-paced program where the teachers are more like tutors for each student. Many of these teens have been trouble at home or in school ... but I see them as people who "hear a different drummer". God has given me the ability to reach these students and teach them Math. I was so happy to be able to work with these students and then to watch them graduate. This is a story I like to use when explaining why we need Alternative Educational settings ... it has a good moral!
The Animal School
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than his instructor, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running, This was kept up untill his webbed feet were worn and torn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He also developed a "charliehorse" from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severly. In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, a mutated eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb, and fly a little, had the highest average and was valedictorian.
