"S" IS FOR SPEEDBOAT

Convicts may act confident, but usually that’s just their way of masking their own deficiencies and continuing down that lonely road called poor self-esteem. However, there was one particular student that really changed and I’ll always remember his accomplishments. Amongst the prison population his nickname is "Speedboat." He’s in his mid 40’s and has been locked up since the age of 16. For three years straight he did not show any signs of progress in my class. From my observations, he could do the necessary class assignments with guided practice; however, he had difficulty with long-term memory. In fact, I could assign him the same work week after week and he’d act like he’d never seen it before. Some of the other students would laugh at him, and I’d have to come to his defense, often saying, "Wait until he gets his GED and you’re still sitting in here poking fun at the next guy." I wasn’t too sure this would materialize.

One day Speedboat asked if I’d read his court transcripts. They were part of his institutional records. At the time, I didn’t know his self-fulfilling prophecy was contained in one short little paragraph on those transcripts. In fact, prior teachers reported in his educational file that getting a GED was highly unlikely, if not impossible—I’ve always felt that you should be very careful about what you put in a student’s file. Anyway, I’m not to keen on reading court transcripts because I don’t want to know what crime or crimes my students have committed. But Speedboat was insistent. So I read them. A school psychologist said his IQ peaked at about 70, that he was mildly retarded, and probably uneducable. When I finished reading, Speedboat was trying to get my reaction. I didn’t acknowledge him at first, so he pointed out that one paragraph. I told him it was one man’s opinion and that he needed to get back to his schoolwork in order to get his GED

I’d like to think my emotional support and social approval turned him around. Needless to say, it was a long haul. The following year Speedboat passed all five-subject areas of the GED. It’s amazing how his self-esteem blossomed. Now I see him handing out and inventorying gym equipment. He sometimes visits my classroom to encourage other students to keep trying.

Here’s what I’ve learned: figure out what is causing your student’s low self-esteem and be careful about what you put in his academic file. Also, a few encouraging words never hurt anyone, followed by suggestions on ways to improve academic skills. In Speedboats case, I stuck with concrete goals such as: He will continue working on the prescribed algorithms for fractions, completing each assignment with 80% accuracy. Every four months I’d do another report such as: He has consistently hit 80% on his fraction assignments and will now utilize the grid method to solve ratio and proportion problems. Each report showed progress no matter how small. When I look back, it’s because of people like Speedboat that I continue to teach in the prison system.