A Letter from the Heartland: The Forgotten Student
The student the system failed
One of the students who I have worked with is John. John comes from a low-income family where no one went to college. His dad left in middle school, and his mom juggled multiple part-time jobs before she went on welfare. He had a few friends, but his social skills were lacking. His first year of high school was an adjustment, but he made it through it and was progressing in his sophomore year as well.
Then the calendar flipped to March of 2020, and the world changed; his school was closed three-quarters of the way through. Sure, he knew his way around technology as video games were his hobby, but the transition did not go well when it came to learning algebra. In his junior year, he struggled with the rigorous curriculum he was enrolled in, but his social skills took the biggest dive.
Being an only child meant interacting with his mom, aunt, and grandmother. He went months on end without talking to another male. He thought the world would return to normal, and he could return to school in August 2020. Well, within the first two weeks of school, they went virtual again for two weeks, then he went back for a week, then he got sick and received a positive test and had to isolate from his room for two weeks.
Isolating from his family and school is where his attitude changed. His original good-natured and got bitter, his grades nosedived, and for the first time, he failed multiple classes and seemed to check out. His school only had one guidance counselor who had too many responsibilities to handle and never made an effort to talk to him. His teachers tried to engage him but would get no reaction.
Fast forward two years, and he graduated with the least amount of credits. He had a GPA of 2.0, his college dreams disappeared, and he got a job at the county dump making $8.50 an hour. He is already facing hurdles because of the poverty of his family. During his sophomore and junior, he hardly interacted with his fellow students because of social distancing.
His senior year was supposed to be chasing his dreams and aspirations, which turned into just trying to graduate. John is like many students who fell through the cracks during the last two years; frankly, the system failed him.
As the years go on, I will think about John and what he is doing with his life. He is also my motivation for always working with people, giving them the benefit of the doubt whatever circumstances they are facing, and trying to be a positive reinforcement. John should also serve as an example of why the education system and even the human services sector need to be reformed because of the circumstances people have faced over the last two and half years. Or the people like John will only increase, and the problem will only get bigger.
