Mohamed

Am I being unfair or un-American if I say that my immigrant students, for the most part, work way harder than my ‘made in America’ lot?  Sorry but this is my anecdotal opinion.  Take for example my student who recently arrived from Yemen.  If you share the topical concern that teachers have become lazy, bring in Mohamed. When I recently gave his class an opportunity to relax for a minute after killing the present tense verb  ‘to be’ he said, “No thank you, please move on to ‘was and were.’ A twenty-year-old, hard-of-hearing boy, who told me the first day of class, “I am here to learn English” and when making connections sometimes signs half to me, half to himself, (with pure delight, I must add), “I am learning!” Does it get much better than that for us teachers? I think not. I don’t want to go off into some inspirational dribble about the thrill of seeing those little lights go on but feel compelled to mention here, with the present state of educational affairs, that this is the rare occurrence on which we poor teachers still set our hearts and minds. So I must thank the Mohameds of this world for while they may be draining our resources (especially those who have made it here illegally) they sure could teach a few of their homegrown counterparts what it just might take to succeed.