Always Around

Journal Entry #1

11 June 2005

8:15 P.M.

My first week of teaching high school sciences at the College of Saint Adelaide has been a revelation. I think I have made the right choice of moving here, as it has led me to interesting encounters with fascinating people. Also, this institution has probably the laxest teaching workload that I know of, and it is doing wonders for my mental and physical health.

I am quite enjoying how much more time I get to spend with students, and how little of it I spend cooped in my cubicle in the faculty room. Thirty to forty beautiful students per class, six classes, an hour each every day. And then, presumably two to three hours of grading, documentation, and lesson planning. Of course, three hours immediately turns five, but I expected more desk hours than this.

It surprises me that events and extracurricular activities are mostly handled by student organizations and their advisers. Unless a teacher is an org adviser, they do not need to get involved. Granted these events have standards and how-to's passed down by previous organizers and advisers, and the fundings are proposed and approved before every school year. Still, the efficiency these talented students exhibit by running school-wide movements with the littlest amount of supervision is astounding. 

I am most delighted to know that parent-teacher conferences occur only every quarter and only for serious disciplinary or academic issues. It is also a miracle to me that the administration puts so much trust in the teachers' lesson planning here that appraisals are rarely done.

I have also unearthed an intriguing connection between two of my students - Roxanne Lee Ascan; Fourth Year, Section One, and Gladwell Esquejo; Fourth Year, Section Three. 

As I have bonded with these kids more than my other students due to a string of coincidences, I've gathered through details from their stories that they have both been involved in each other's emotional growth throughout high school even though there has never been direct contact between the two. I've come to understand that they have been classmates during freshmen year, but have never had direct interaction, much less a formal introduction. 

According to Gladwell, an instance of seeing a crying Roxanne has made him rethink snap judgments about people. In the other half of the story, Roxanne recalls a young Gladwell gesture in an attempt to stop her from crying and has gained a permanent mental image embodying pure encouragement that has helped her process struggles up until the present. From what I gathered, it seems they had no prior interaction before that instance, and they have not had another since. That situation, which I could imagine only lasted mere seconds, has caused positive changes in these people and became a foundation of their personality development, at least according to how both parties presented it in their stories.

I did not know all these before I asked for Roxanne's help to assess Gladwell's prose relating to his family matters last Monday. And it seems Roxanne is also dealing with problems in her own family lately. This makes me wonder if Gladwell's writing will influence how Roxanne will deal with her problems in the coming days. 

I am still waiting for Gladwell to reconnect with me after our last talk. I do not wish to rush him as it seems he struggles with being open and vulnerable to his family, classmates, and teachers. Although I am honored with how much he was willing to share with me, I do not want to risk overstepping. There is a chance that his walls will double up the next time, but I am still hoping he'll come to realize that there are people he could trust without fear of judgment.