Interviews with Students

***For the privacy of students interviewed, I used aliases for all students referenced in this and subsequent posts.


Students are amazing people with lives often as complicated as adults'. One of my first assignments from the College of Education this year was to interview a student about his or her conception of their personal identity and their identity as a learner. These were to be 5 minute interviews during which I could ask any number of questions. I focused on these:

1.      How would you describe yourself? What do you like to do? What are you good at? Do you like to watch TV? What shows? What kind of music do you like?

2.      Can you tell me about your family? Who all lives at home with you? Where do you live? Have you always lived there?

3.      What do you like to do outside of school? Do you do sports, or are you in clubs, or anything? Do you work? Who do you like to spend your time with?

4. What is your favorite subject? Why? Do you it could be more fun? How?

5.      If I could give you a million dollars, what would you do with it? 

6.      Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about yourself?

The answers I got were astounding. The sixth graders I interviewed were far more complex than I imagined possible. If one interview could be enlightening, would not five interviews be even more enlightening? So that is what I did. I asked these questions of five students and received an array of responses I never imagined. Here is the first of the five interviews, and the one that moved me the most.

Christopher-
 In class, Christopher is confrontational, often aggressive toward other students, and unrelenting. He does his work, and he does it well, but he takes personal offense to the misbehavior of others in the class. Though some may write him off immediately as a discipline case for his short temper, after the interview, I could never see him that way. Christopher has never lived with his biological parents. His grandparents raised them, until they both passed away recently in a very short span of time. He then moved in with his auntie, a single mother of two. He has two younger cousins in the house with him; one is three and the other is only a one year old. He plays a major role in their upbringing. A babysitter comes to the house from 3pm-6:30pm each weeknight after school while his auntie works. During this time he must complete all of his homework because once his auntie gets home, he has responsibilities to take care of cousins, who he calls his brother and sister. At 6:30, he helps prepare their dinner and feed the two children. Then, when required, he bathes them before getting them ready for and into bed. Then, he gets his own dinner and must get into bed himself shortly after. Is it any surprise that he told me that his favorite things to do are eat and sleep? For fun, if there is time, he watches cartoons with his cousins or reads comic books. He plays video games occasionally, but only every by himself. He does not have time to have friends over.

When asked what he would do with a million dollars, he said he would donate half to breast cancer research, because that is what killed his grandma, and the other half to his great-grandmother whose house is in danger of being foreclosed. He explicitly said that he would not keep even a dollar for himself. This young man wants to be a family practice doctor because he wants to help people, and I sincerely hope he makes it. Is it any wonder that Christopher has a short fuse? This 11 year-old boy is taking on grown up responsibilities willingly to help out the people he loves most. Every kid has a story, and every story is worth listening to. The next time you come across a challenging student, ask yourself, could he be a Christopher? You'll never know unless you ask.