... I need to get some new glasses.
In case you're wondering what I was doing talking to a pupil, a group of us spent the day at Langdon Park School in Poplar, observing lessons and talking to pupils and teachers, eventually getting onto leading a couple of activities in the afternoon (although I don't know what they were expecting from children at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon). The school is situated within a large Bangladeshi community; as a result about 80% of the pupils were Bangladeshi, many with English as a second language.
It was definitely an eye-opener for me - I've only ever had experience of grammar education, and I'm not saying that grammar kids are all 'cleverer', or 'posher' or whatever (because it's not true!) but you can definitely tell the difference in terms of their motivation for working, and their attitudes to learning. We were told that a very high proportion (they even went as far to say all) the pupils had some sort of issue at home, or issues which they were dealing with, and you can tell it greatly affects their learning.
The activities we were given to lead were exceptionally dull. I mean, really dull, so no wonder they couldn't really be bothered. Also we only had a fifteen minute slot, and all six of us were talking the activity in the same classroom. I think this is why the pupils felt they could mess around; they behaved just fine for their normal class teacher but saw our time with them as an opportunity to push the boundaries. And to ask really personal, stupid questions.
I worked with one particular student of self-proclaimed 'disadvantaged' Bangladeshi background, who took particular relish in asking me lots and lots and lots of these rapid-fire awkward questions. It was very amusing actually so I'd like to attempt to reconstruct the conversation as follows:
Pupil: "Miss are you English? Are you rich? Why are you here? Are you at University? If I go Uni will you help me wiv my tuition fees coz I'm like really poor innit. We don't get any food because we're really disadvantaged. I, like, live in a bin, and my friend lives in the bin next door, and we only get given rubbish and litter coz we don't get proper food. Have you ever played Call of Duty? Miss did you know there's a new Wii coming out? Have you got a son Miss? Are you married? When you get a husband and a son you should buy a Wii so that they can play Call of Duty on it. Miss I CAN'T DO THIS QUESTION. It's ruining my self-esteem. Do you support the Tory party? Or is it Labour? I know it's not Lib Dem coz you're at Uni and Nick Clegg sang that song about being really sorry for making you pay loads of money and that. Miss your glasses make you look like Harry Potter. But a girl. You look like a girl version of Harry Potter. Miss my friend's being racist because he's saying my mum works at Asda but actually she works at Sainsbury's. Miss I don't see the point of this can I go home now?"
Me: "..."
ALL of these things were said. I remember because 1) it was only about 3 hours ago and 2) I had to try so hard not to crack up. I can't wait to start my placement at Norbury Girls next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment