Working with Adjudicated Youth Part 4: My Old Student

Just in case you are just tuning in. This past summer I had the opportunity and privilege to be a summer English teacher in a program for adjudicated youth. I took lots of notes on my computer and phone as this experience was new to me. I've been writing about it and divided the posts into parts. The "parts" are not indicative of any type of sequence of events this summer, just different aspects of the experience.

You can revisit earlier posts by clicking on a part. Part 4 (below) deals with my reconnecting with a former student while working this summer.

Part 1   Part 2    Part 3

With some minor edits, including pseudonyms, here are the exact words that I wrote after I had the chance to catch up with a former student this past summer where I worked:

Just saw Jimmy Neutron here at the facility!!!! Here’s the thing, I came downstairs and heard someone dropping some knowledge on these boys. Was good stuff about what it really means to be locked up and how he didn’t want to see them there. He was speaking from experience. I listened for a few minutes as the talk was coming to a close. I look up and who is it dropping science on this young bols but JIMMY NEUTRON!!! I was sooooo proud to hear him talking like that.

We chatted and caught up!! He then proceeded to inform the kids and the adults that I was his teacher and he seemed so very proud!! I was proud to call him my student and how he had grown! He told them of the writing punishments and how he hated reading growing up and now loves it. He asked about Ms. ---, Mr. ---. He said the only two teachers he remembers were me and ----.

He told {Leonardo} to tell the others to fall back if they start disrespecting me. I hinted that he {Leonardo} was among them and he admitted to it. I can respect that. He said, “Yeah, I do be disrespecting him.” Jimmy Neutron said, “chill, he good folks, that’s my teacher from back in the day when I was a young bol.”

It was so good to catch up with him and to hear him drop science on these kids!

I gave {Donatello} a shout out to Jimmy Neutron. He seemed to like the recognition. {Donatello} then told me he likes writing. It comes natural. He was genuine and smiling as he was telling me. He was proud of the shout out that I gave him to this older former student, Jimmy Neutron. Jimmy Neutron had their respect on a level that was different from the one they gave me and it seemed to work.