Akash

As an assistant principal I have had a full plate of things to do. Often I get home and am quite tired. This dissertation is tough to focus on- so I am going to work on it this weekend. However I am going to share something that happened this week that brought some energy to my work.

About 4 months ago I went into the highest math class in our school to test my theory out. I was taking a social construct and attempting to convert it into a mathematical equation. The work was not strong enough for my professors to allow in my dissertation- however the attempt taught me much.

One of the students in that class began to suggest ways we could use the equation to discover other/deeper meanings. He moved variables around and such- it was fascinating.
Four months later and this 8th grader caught me making rounds in the cafeteria to ask if he could meet me at lunch to talk about my dissertation. He said, "I have been thinking about your work on motivation and would like to share some thoughts with you."

I froze- warmly accepted the invitation and continued my rounds. But my thoughts were not on the kid who was playing bowling alley with his milk bottles- it was on the fact that this young man was thinking about my work. I was humbled. I was inspired to pick up the trail where I left off and make some progress.

Akash met me and talked about motivation in the light of peer pressure- and motivation in the light of family expectations. Both topics are very relevant to my work. Both factors are typically not in the favor of African-American boys. I shared that these do typically act against the students I am interested in learning about however, schools can do things to support these kids.

All I can say is how grateful I am to this 8th grader for having the initiative to talk to me.