Clifford, a lanky, goofy looking, eight-grade boy; was often found wandering the blacktop instead of being in class. The blacktop was the space for Physical Education class, which usually involved 70 teenagers running around in sweaty PE clothes like a swarm of bees. Here, Clifford usually stood out like a sore thumb because he was so much taller than the other kids, was wearing his regular school uniform, and wasn’t ever running. He was supposed to be in class, but often I’d see him drifting along, talking to his friends just long enough to have a teacher yell “Clifford, get to class!” Then he’d meander along.
He was clearly defiant, but there was something about him that I admired. He had calmness and charisma. He was able to get away from something that he didn’t want to do (sit in the classroom) on a regular basis and hardly break a sweat: a young, Black, Paul Newman. It was obvious that Clifford was not engaged by school, so he was probably better off somewhere else anyway.
Although he had never been a student of mine, I decided to attempt to connect with him. Of course, I knew his name because teachers were always yelling it. I only saw him about once a week, but I decided to reach out nonetheless. “Clifford, what’s going on?” “Clifford, how are you doing today? I would comment on something that he was wearing. “Whatcha got there? Yeah, that’s cool. I need to get one of those.” Sometimes, I would just stand next to him for a few seconds before going on my merry way. After a few months, I got a couple high fives.
Our school had new vice principal that year (probably a new one every other year). She was in charge of emergency procedures, among other things. How do I know? Well, every time kids pulled the fire alarm, she would get on the intercom and announce “all teachers and students should evacuate the building immediately.” This entailed thousands of kids matching outside to sit on the blacktop, waiting for the firemen to drive over, sirens blaring, just to tell us it was safe to go back inside. First, there was one alarm pulled, two a few days later, and so on, until the alarms were pulled five times in one day. Yup, five school wide evacuations in one day, five false alarms, five trips for the fire trucks sirens blaring, and five times that crazy lady kept getting on the intercom to order us to leave our classes. She quit the next day and was sent back to LAUSD Central Office.
Anyway, something peculiar happened with Clifford during one of those false fire alarms. As I stood over my students, who were sitting in a single file row on the blacktop (like most of the others), about three rows from my class loomed a group of eighth-grade boys. Their PE teacher was M.I.A., so they just stood in a circle. One of the lads, I don’t know who, had the epiphany that it would be a grand idea to hit that tall, White teacher, Mr. Werblow in the back of the head with the basketball. Now, it’s difficult to be liked by every student in any school, but being punked by a group of middle school boys in front of the entire school is every teacher’s worst nightmare. “Gimme the ball” one of the boys called to the other. Some of the boys began to laugh nervously. He took aim. I was oblivious to my impending doom.
“Hey, gimme the ball,” said Clifford. The boy tossed him the ball. The others looked on in excitement. Clifford tucked the basketball under his armpit, “Naw, he’s cool. Don’t do it.”
Moments later, the firemen gave everyone authorization to go back into the building. Clifford walked over to me, the ball still under his arm pit, and told me the story with his big cheese toothy smile. “Yeah, I told them not to. Cause he’s cool.”
“Thanks, man.” I replied. It was one of the most special moments of my career.
Use details from the theories to describe the following:
Social Cognition: Using Bandura’s four elements of social cognition, describe why Clifford chooses to stop his friends from hitting me with the basketball?
Cognition: From a cognitive perspective, what schema influenced Clifford to oppose peer pressure? How was this schema established?
Humanist: Describe three elements of Humanism that I modeled in my approach towards establishing a relationship with Clifford.
Critical Constructivism: How is this story an example of critical constructivism, imagine that you had to help the teacher (me) defend his decision (of not reprimanding Clifford when he was wandering the halls). Use your knowledge of Critical constructivism to help the teacher defend his decision.
