Despite my natural tendency to exaggerate things for the sake of good storytelling, I promise you that this story is completely true, and without exaggeration!
One of the things i have enjoyed greatly this year and which has been a very pleasant surprise, has been the ambiance at my school with the other professeurs and the general solidarity among the “Equipe Pedagogique“.
I suppose it is partly due to the fact that our school is considered one which has quite a bit of discipline issues, by virtue of the fact that it is also a professional high school, and that it is in one of the Parisian suburbs with a fairly noticeable portion of north African immigrant families. Naturally when in such a situation, the teachers have to be more together, and as a result there is a really palpable sense of camaraderie between the teachers. This does not mean that we do not criticise each other, but rather when we do we understand that it is constructive, and besides that there is a lot of joking around going on and whatnot.
This is in opposition to many parisian, old, bourgeois type schools, where there is a very wooden atmosphere even amongst the teaching corp. Anyways, so over the year i’ve gotten to know some colleagues more than others, for example the math and techonology teachers, simply because their subject is closer to my physics.
So sometime ago, during class i asked one of my students, a girl we’ll call “J” to stay after class. She is someone who has caused A LOT of problems for most teachers, and for the school in general, for various reasons. With me we have developed somewhat of an understanding. However,this particular day she had been talking a lot during class, and i asked to stay. I had a relatively long talk with her, and though i was not rude or anything, i made it understood that this type of behaviour will no longer be tolerated, etc. She left 5 minutes after.
when i went to the teacher’s lounger after my next class, i found Mr. X, the tech. teacher who asked me over. Now, he is a guy in his mid 30′s i imagine, and usually nice but a bit … weird. He said, in a bit of an annoyed voice, “J was late for my class, was it because of you? She told me you had held her back”. I responded by saying, yes it was me, and went to explain taht it was because she was causing trouble, and i wanted to make her understand that it would no longer be tolerated.
Hearing that, he said “oh ok. well in that case. it’s fine. good.” He paused and i assumd he had finished, when suddenly he continued :
“You know it was good what you did. Cuz these students they’re like the Borg. You know, in star trek. As soon as the first transports onto your ship, you have to act quickly and get rid of it, otherwise they’ll take over really quickly”
Then he simply went back to marking his papers!
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