Peer Pressure

Since the first day of class there has been one very dominating personality in my class. His heart is usually in the right place and 97% of the time he does his best in school. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to bully and be a negative influence on a few of my other students.

Christian is one of the "other" students. He is a very intelligent kid, but is frequently lazy and very much under the influence of the afore mentioned student. For several months I have struggled to get him to make his own choices, but wanting to be cool has won out most times. Until the week that Anthony-oops-I mean that afore mentioned student was suspended for a few days. The transformation in Christian was remarkable. Before he would never participate-now he was readily volunteering intelligent responses. Before he would sit and stare at a blank page of paper until I nudged him to write-now he surprised me at the beginning of a school day with two pages-front and back-full of details about his character. Before during community circle he would refuse to share or wait for his idol to share a response and then copy his. Now he eagerly shared the news of his newborn baby brother with his classmates. It was like teaching two different students.

Since Anthony's return, Christian's classroom work ethic has continued to excel. The playground, however, is another story. The very day his buddy returned, Christian was persuaded by said buddy to blatantly defy a student teacher and leave the recess line once the bell had rung. I was so shocked at both his lack of self esteem and Anthony's powers of persuasion. In a private conversation several minutes later, Christian admitted to me that he didn't like the way he felt inside after defying the teacher. We discussed some different ways he could avoid the situation in the future. I hope he can find it in himself to stand up for the good choices...otherwise, I'm afraid he's in for some hard times next year in middle school.