Lessons I Learned in Inner City Schools
00:00:00 Jon Bergmann: Welcome back to the Reach Every Student Podcast. I'm your host, John Bergman. If you've been listening to my rebooted podcast, I've been sharing a lot about AI and how I see it being a complete game changer in the world of education. You know, these podcasts have been serious and maybe even alarming. I still believe we are at that pivotal moment in the world of education, but I also realize That we can get too serious about education and where we're at today. And so today I want to do something a little bit different. I want to share with you a few stories and lessons I've learned in my four decade career of teaching. I've had a crazy privilege in my life, teaching in a wide variety of schools. I taught at inner city schools, blue collar schools, suburban schools, rural schools, affluent suburb schools and private schools. and so there I, I want to just focus in on one of those eras or epochs in my life. when I taught in the inner city school, it was the first school that I ever taught at. Well, that's not a hundred percent true, I guess. My first job teaching, I was a subteacher in the Denver metropolitan area and I went all over. It was actually a really good experience for a semester. I was a substitute teacher in every kind of school you can imagine. Public schools in the Denver metro area. But then that I walked in towards the end of that first semester. this is 1986, eighty-seven school year. And there was a teacher who was about to go on maternity leave. Long story short, I got her job for the second semester. So I had a second semester full-time gig, but then she came back. And so I then took a job. I was looking for a job and I got a call from a school. They actually needed a swimming coach. And, the high school, Denver South High School. But, they didn't have a job. So they shuffled me over to one of the middle schools. And so I was the swimming coach and I was, I got a job as a middle school, inner city middle school teacher. And I wanted to share a few stories that happened there and also maybe some lessons that I learned from those years. I was there for three years. I feel like that is the place I learned how to teach. See, I, I grew up as a suburban kid. I went to suburban schools. My dad was in the air force. And so I was actually at a lot of these international like, department defense schools. I was at those schools as a child growing up. My family loved to learn. We read books. And, and then I showed up at an inner city school, a young man on a mission. I was twenty-two years old or something like that. And I wanted to make a difference in the lives of these students. I really had that passion to do that, right? And so, but I also was acknowledging that a lot of the students The vast majority of students did not come from the same culture that I grew up in. They did not have the same privileges that I had. And, um, I really learned, I learned how to be a teacher there. so, so much of my development as a teacher really started at that. epoch of my life and I would not trade it for the world. some interesting stories, a story that made me smile. So I'm a brand new teacher. I had to grow a beard, even look old enough to teach. And, I'm one, one of these days I'm, I'm, I'm teaching seventh grade science. Right. And I've got these kids in the classroom and I'm trying to teach and you know, I walk, it's like after lunch, and the kids are totally like not listening to me. I say, what in the world is going on? I mean, I, you know, maybe I'm not that riveting or whatever. I'm, what's going on? Why can't I? engage the students these days and I noticed they were all looking at one student. They were staring at this kid and I thought, wait a second. They're not looking at me. They're chuckling. There's, there's an inside joke, right? And they're looking at this kid and I walk over and, and in those days kids could wear hats in schools and this young man had a ball cap on and I had the, you know, The goal does cause they were staring. I realized they weren't only staring at him. They were staring at his hat. I said, what in the world is going on? So I pull the ball cap off this kid. And they burst into laughing and I'm still lost. I like, what have I done? What are they so funny about? I give the kid his hat or put it back on his head and then I try to continue teaching. I continually lost it. The kids are just in another world. I mean, it's like, what's going on? And so I, at this point I said, they're getting their back staring at this kid's head with the hat. So I had the pernicity. Is that the right word? I grabbed his hat again and I lifted up his hat. He had a flat top haircut. And on the top of his hat flat, top hair cup was a lizard. Like a little like lizard. He'd brought his pet lizard to class. And it was crawling around on his head. Now, the funny thing was, is when I opened up the hat or I took his hat in time one, the lizard was stuck to the hat. And I'm looking at his head, seeing nothing. The kids are dying laughing because in the ball gap is the lizard. Which I never looked at and oh, what a fun memory that was. And, the kids and I, we bonded. Um, and that was. That was good. And one thing I learned quickly at that school is that a lot of kids were coming from, you know, significant issues. myself and another young teacher, we. We were trying to reach some of the young men there. And so what we decided to do is they like to play basketball. And so every Tuesday or something like that, we would open up the gym after school and we'd play basketball. And after that, we'd have a chance to talk to some of the young men. Who'd show up that no young women would show up in those days for basketball. And they would, tell us that, you know, if they weren't there, they would be out. Um, on a gang. It was, you know, this is 1986, eighty-seven eighty-eight somewhere there. and I realized that we were making a difference and. I really grew to love those kids, but I also realized that they had so many challenges. we had, a tragedy happened at the school where one of my students, her Her father was drunk, came home and killed her mother in front of her and just, you know, that the level of trauma that the kids had to face. was, was so daunting and we wanted to, as a school, we really were trying to do a great job of reaching those kids and doing what we could. Um, I had one young man, it's sort of a funny story and not at the same time. A young man who came to me, who I had really like befriended and I felt like I'd made some difference with him. But, one day he walks into my class where he wasn't in that class. He was in a different class. And he walks up to this kid. Now, these are seventh grade boys and girls. And he was a tiny seventh grade boy. So hear me carefully. I'm a dumb young teacher. So don't ever do what I'm about to do. And this kid comes in and he yells at another kid. He says, right here, right now, we got to do it. He's pissed. Something happened at lunch or something and he wants to fight. And I turned to him and I said to this young man, I said, you got two choices. You walk out of here or I carry you out. And the moment I said, carry you out, I thought, that was dumb, John. What are you thinking? Is that a good idea for you to carry a kid out? And he's, he's hot. He is hot and wanting to pick a fight with this other boy. And, um, you know, I used to be a lifeguard. I've been trained on some of these things. And so, you know what I did? I ducked my shoulder down and I did a fireman's carry and walked out of the hallway with him. The kid was so shocked. I mean, maybe he had, he could have had a knife or a gun or he didn't. I, you know, I'm still here. Blessings upon me, I guess. I walk out in the hallway and, another teacher says, do you need some help? As I have this kid in my shoulder, I said, watch my class. And I marched him down and took him to the principal and we dealt with it. Yeah. I mean, again, that's not that typical thing I'll see, you'll see in most suburban schools or private schools or, but in that inner city school, Um, we did a, we did a good job reaching those students. We really did. We had a great principal, George Dietrich. I hope you're still out there, George. George Dietrich, he was such a great principal and he knew how to reach the students. He had a stricter policy. I, you know, I don't know. I've read some things about. How you deal with, um, inner city schools and, um, students with who, who don't have the structure at home that you provided at school, but our principal sure did. And we really. Did a great work for those students for a few of those years and that was really a good time. Yeah, another interesting story again that shows the, the trauma. So, I would be there late most days and I was late one day and I got to know the janitor. And the janitor was actually, um, a girl. I can't remember now at this stage whether she was in high school or just out of high school. So a young woman. Not much different than my age. And she would come in and we would just chat as I was, you know, doing my lesson plan or whatever. And I could tell she was a sharp young lady and I made some, some comment that, man, you, you are smart. And you could do so much with your life. And at one time point, she just broke down in tears. And she says, you know, my dad just tells me I'm stupid. And that's what I really am. And I said, no, you're not. And, um, so she was having this, she was believing the lie that, you know, unfortunately in the, you know, the home with the trauma that she had, She believed these things. So, yeah, I have had such a privilege of working in schools around the world and, um, I hope you hear that my heart has always been for my students. How can we reach every student? And that's the heart of this podcast is how can you reach your students? And I know you all have stories just like the stories I'm telling you right now. And when I think about this as I, you know, try and bring the ship to a close here or this plane to a land. I always mix my metaphors, by the way. I guess the question I wanna ask you and I ask myself each day is how do I reach these students in this place? I don't know what your context is, what school you're teaching at, what challenges you're facing. They could be a million things, right? Maybe you're, you're frustrated your kids aren't engaged. They're too much connected to technology. They're, they're cheating on AI. They're, um, you're just burnout. I don't know what you're facing. But the question I tried to ask myself and I still try to ask myself is what's the best for my students at this point? What's the best? Sometimes the answer is a tough love thing, right? Got to hold them accountable. Sometimes you need to show compassion. Um, Sometimes you need to do the right thing. I just thought of industry. I'll tell you this one. So at this intersea schools, mostly primarily, um, the, we had the primary ethnic minority there was, was Hispanic, uh, Americans. And I had my very first year there, my very first year, I had this young man, um, Cesar was his name. And Cesar was, um, the young man that every boy wanted to be. And every girl wanted to date. And Cesar was an alpha male. Oh, my gosh. He was an alpha male. And somehow I figured out that I realized that I needed... To earn César's respect. Not, I didn't need to be his friend though. And so I sought to become somebody, he was the alpha male and I needed to be his alpha male and I wasn't always successful, let's be honest. But what I did learn, though, is that when Cesar had a good day, we all had a good day. Oh, my. And so I really tried to get Cesar on my side. Uh, and I think I was pretty successful and, uh, That made for such a great first year and I have fond fond memories of my years at that school. The teachers I met who really taught me how to teach. The teacher, boy, I got stories. I was calling a parent about a student who was misbehaving. And the old seasoned teacher walks into the room and we, again, this is not a, we had like a phone room, right? This is old school. And she says she heard who I was talking to. And she quietly said, hang up. And I trusted her. And so I hung up and I said, what's going on? Do you know? She said that young man is being beat at home. We've got to find a different way to reach him. And it broke my heart because the kid was acting out. He wasn't behaving well, but I don't want to make a call where he's going to get beat at home. And so there's there's challenges. Maybe you're facing that in your in your context. I hope you're not. And again, the question I asked then, and I would ask again now as I reflect all these years later, is how do you reach that student, right? The answer isn't to Sick dad and mom on him or whatever. It's to, it's to how do I engage? How do I reach that student in this context? So this may not be so, I mean, hopefully it was funny, but I hope this episode also gets you thinking about your students and how you can
00:13:04 Jon Bergmann: reach your students in your class every day. this is Jon Bergman and I encourage you to, uh, click subscribe if you like this content, share it with a friend. go out there and reach every student in every class every day.
