Several years ago I had a team member, 'Z' whose mother called me in the middle of the summer and asked me to encourage her son to quit school and join the Job Corps (yes she was serious
). 'Z' was a junior going into his senior year, had been a team member for two years and he loved the team. I told her that as his teacher, coach, and an educator I could not do that. Her reply was, 'Well his step-dad and I are moving to California. He's 18 and we are not taking him with us so I don't know what he's going to do.' mind you this was said with less than motherly concern.
Sure enough they left several weeks later and he stayed behind. He found a job and moved in with some friends. As difficult as that year was he somehow managed to pay his bills, make it to school everyday, AND be here every night for robotics. On graduation night this young man was the first of his family to graduate from high school in 5 generations and he did it and stayed because he wanted to finish out his senior year with his
team-family.
The night he walked the stage and received his diploma was one of my proudest moments as a teacher and not terribly different from how I felt when I watched my own son graduate from high school. The ability to help students like 'Z' is one of the reasons I keep doing this crazy thing called robotics and stay in the teaching field.
