1. Classic City High School
My semester as a volunteer educator

2. Goal
Because of the high minority population, I thought it would be beneficial to call upon the teachings of Freire and Pedagogy of the Oppressed in my work there.
I also called upon another scholar whose ideas evolved from Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Christopher Emdin, from my group’s second book discussion who pushed the importance of relating to multicultural students and meeting them on their individual cultural and emotional turfs to aid the co creation of knowledge.
Having read this scholarship, I wanted to see how the local alternative school, Classic City High School, approached the education of its students

3. Demographics
In the school year, of 190 students, 117 were black, 45 were hispanic, 21 were white, and 7 were multiracial.
That’s 76% minority students. This number is a little more complicated to put in context in terms of district and local representation due to the minority concentration of Athens-Clarke County compared to its Oconee neighbor.
Though i don’t have the break-down, some students attend for punitive reasons, though the administrators tend to cite the non-disciplinary reasons for attended, like flexible graduation track, remediation, and non-traditional environment

4. My Experience: The Kiddos
I loved them
At first i was nervous, but not about the students but about whether or not they would LIKE me believe it or not
They did (i think)
I was in an english classroom working with a teacher named Mrs. Johns (very sweet, we actually went to the same high school)
I would just assist her with instruction and then assist the students with assignments
Mostly i used it as a time to get to know them
They were all annoyingly smart in they way high schoolers are, VERY witty, say things that you dont understand
There was a student who liked to draw and wants to go to art school who would always give me anime recommendations, couple of kids who wanted to be entrepenuers, a girl who gave the best netflix recommendations lol
Super fun and smart
Have attention/engagement issues that could be resolved with activities that engaged them more

5. My Experience: The Learning Environment
Observations
Even in this non-traditional setting, it was clear that learning here was still based off the banking model
Teachers were trying desperately to make these deposits, but the students seemed to believe they had no use for them
Students had interests, they just weren’t interested in what they were studying
The few discipline issues I saw came from cultural miscommunication
As a non-traditional school setting, there was much underutilized potential for freedom
Based off Christopher Emdin’s teachings of meeting students on their cultural turfs to relate the material to them which in turn co-facilitates learning
I made it clear that who they were did not have to conflict with being academic (acknowledging colloquialisms, etc)
Gave students an active role in choosing topics they related to
Asked for feedback often

6. Take Aways Moving forward i would love to see CCHS administrators
Be open
Relate
Listen to students
Most important thing: you can’t come in with preconceived notions about any kids. Especially these kids. They are smart, and capable, and interested, and like Steven universe just like the rest of us. They need people who see them