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Isaac Odongo
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FASTLANE INSIDER
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Speedway Pass
The girl was expected to score the maximum of 20 points in the final exams, straight As. She was earmarked for it by teachers, administrators and students alike.
But the girl was struggling to score a principle pass in any of her 3 principles. She sat for a couple of them and failed flat. Her teachers were furious and discouraged at the same time. She, instead of getting out of her head and working to solve the problem broke down and cried and broke down and cried again.
She should be punished. They said. She should be suspended. She is very unserious.
Mr. Odongo you need to handle her. You are responsible for academic excellence. Handle her with an iron fist.
One of the students had the problem above. She sat for exams but barely wrote anything on her answer booklets.
And my responsibility was to help her.
What would I do?
Only the two of us in an open staffroom.
"How are you doing and how are things going?"
"Not fine," she says.
I discuss, asking open-ended questions and other Andy Black kind of questions. I rephrase her responses seeking to understand.
Pressure. The pressure is overwhelming. She says.
I read. I have them in my mind. But when in an exam they vanish. The pressure makes them vanish. I don't know what I can do.
"Why do you so badly want to pass exams?" I ask.
"Because I have to," she responds.
"Who says you have to?" I ask again.
"No one. But I have to."
"What if you don't? What happens then?"
"I will be finished. I will have no where to go."
"Who says you'll have no where to go?"
"No one. But I won't qualify for a scholarship to do the engineering course I want to do."
"So you want to do an engineering degree. Did anyone force you to do it?"
"No. It is my choice."
And the discussion follows. I asked her to change "I have to" to "I want to" and take charge of her life and future. I show her these are choices she makes and the results she gets are also a product of her choices both physical and mental.
I ask her to write goals down. She breaks down and cries. She doesn't write them.
"What to do fear?" I ask.
"Nothing. I don't fear anything." She says.
"What's that you fear to face that's making you cry?"
A confession. Drugs and all that. A history she wants to wipe out of memory in vain. An estrangement from her father as a consequence of some poor choices she makes.
Take control of your life now. I tell her. I can only help you when you do that. I insist.
Take responsibility of your decisions, actions and their consequences. Stop excusing yourself and take back the power to change your reality. I say.
She agrees.
We will work on taking down the pressure later. When you have processed the matter and value of taking control of your life and reality. I tell her.
She appreciates. This conversation we have had is different from all the others I have had with other teachers. This has been helpful. Others just demand and make me feel inadequate.
Put them all out of your mind. When you are alone. What are you? What do you want? Why do you want it? That's your motivation.
That evening the chief administrator threatens her with a suspension. That in the evening assembly on that same day.
I think she breaks down again.
The next day we meet, this time with another administrator. She turns up with a radiance on her face and a notebook to write.
She is stronger by then and ready for the next stage.
But the girl was struggling to score a principle pass in any of her 3 principles. She sat for a couple of them and failed flat. Her teachers were furious and discouraged at the same time. She, instead of getting out of her head and working to solve the problem broke down and cried and broke down and cried again.
She should be punished. They said. She should be suspended. She is very unserious.
Mr. Odongo you need to handle her. You are responsible for academic excellence. Handle her with an iron fist.
One of the students had the problem above. She sat for exams but barely wrote anything on her answer booklets.
And my responsibility was to help her.
What would I do?
- It's not uncommon for such to be punished either by verbal or physical means. What would I do?
- Talking it over with her would appear to some: weak and ineffective, even permissive and unserious of me.
Only the two of us in an open staffroom.
"How are you doing and how are things going?"
"Not fine," she says.
I discuss, asking open-ended questions and other Andy Black kind of questions. I rephrase her responses seeking to understand.
Pressure. The pressure is overwhelming. She says.
I read. I have them in my mind. But when in an exam they vanish. The pressure makes them vanish. I don't know what I can do.
"Why do you so badly want to pass exams?" I ask.
"Because I have to," she responds.
"Who says you have to?" I ask again.
"No one. But I have to."
"What if you don't? What happens then?"
"I will be finished. I will have no where to go."
"Who says you'll have no where to go?"
"No one. But I won't qualify for a scholarship to do the engineering course I want to do."
"So you want to do an engineering degree. Did anyone force you to do it?"
"No. It is my choice."
And the discussion follows. I asked her to change "I have to" to "I want to" and take charge of her life and future. I show her these are choices she makes and the results she gets are also a product of her choices both physical and mental.
I ask her to write goals down. She breaks down and cries. She doesn't write them.
"What to do fear?" I ask.
"Nothing. I don't fear anything." She says.
"What's that you fear to face that's making you cry?"
A confession. Drugs and all that. A history she wants to wipe out of memory in vain. An estrangement from her father as a consequence of some poor choices she makes.
Take control of your life now. I tell her. I can only help you when you do that. I insist.
Take responsibility of your decisions, actions and their consequences. Stop excusing yourself and take back the power to change your reality. I say.
She agrees.
We will work on taking down the pressure later. When you have processed the matter and value of taking control of your life and reality. I tell her.
She appreciates. This conversation we have had is different from all the others I have had with other teachers. This has been helpful. Others just demand and make me feel inadequate.
Put them all out of your mind. When you are alone. What are you? What do you want? Why do you want it? That's your motivation.
That evening the chief administrator threatens her with a suspension. That in the evening assembly on that same day.
I think she breaks down again.
The next day we meet, this time with another administrator. She turns up with a radiance on her face and a notebook to write.
She is stronger by then and ready for the next stage.