It's Only Temporary (12 page)

As we waited for the others to arrive I gave Kurt a verbal breakdown of the day’s activities and what we aiming to achieve over the next four weeks.

‘Ok, so the English we’re gonna do. Can I use that to write a whatchamacallit?’

‘A what?’

‘Y’know. A thing that tells the boss what you have done?’

‘A res… a C.V.?’

‘Yeah that’s it. Can I do one of them?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Cool.’

What was happening here?  Where had the snarling lout from Friday gone? He was showing an interest in what he was going to be doing and making some relatively astute connections. I started to feel a sense of optimism about the next few weeks. Successfully teaching the “Hard to Reach” as Kurt and his group were affectionately known would be an interesting addition to my own resume.

The remainder of the group arrived all of whom were young men of a similar age and disposition to Kurt, with the exception of one young lady who informed me her name was Jade. I was anticipating some sexist banter from the group but this failed to materialise. Jade it seemed had managed to earn their respect; I assumed I did not really want to know how.

‘Ok, errr, guys. Jade are you comfortable me calling the group guys?’

She just nodded at me.

‘Yeah she’s really a bloke anyway!’ one of the group whose name was Tommo called out. This was what I had been expecting; now I needed to deal with it.

I saw Kurt turn to face him but before he or I could say anything to Tommo Jade had left her seat and stood over him.

‘Saying something?’ she challenged.

‘It was a joke J.’ Tommo responded in a much less confident voice.

‘Was it funny?’ Jade snapped.

‘No?’

‘Then what do you say?’ she growled.

‘Sorry?’

‘That’s a good boy. Now act like a grown up or do one. I ain’t got the patience for you if you are gonna mess.’ She turned and moved back towards her desk.

‘Alright calm down!’ Tommo quipped at her back. She quickly turned and headed straight back to him. He visibly leaned away from her as she approached his bravado evaporating.

‘What?’ she barked.

Tommo looked terrified as Jade glared down at him.

‘Listen you dork, we are here to learn and I wanna learn something. You mess with me and you won’t be coming in again, got it?’ The threat was clear and Tommo simply shrank into his chair as much as he physically could.

As Jade sat down she said ‘Sorry,’ to me.

I had spent the whole episode transfixed on the scene and made no contribution to the outcome. As a university level educator, classroom management meant ensuring everyone had and appropriate task to undertake. Here it seemed to mean something totally different and I had just failed in my first test as I should have taken charge of the confrontation, I just didn’t know how.

‘J, we call him Prof,’ Kurt advised Jade.

‘Prof? What does that mean?’ she asked.

‘Professor, ain’t that right Prof?’

‘Yeah that’s right,’ I sighed.

Chapter 9.

‘Ok, so has anyone got any questions before we begin?’

I had spent the best part of half an hour going through the course with the group, explaining what I was planning to do and what they could expect to achieve if they applied themselves. I was not much of a salesman but I assumed that the potential benefits of this opportunity would sell it for me. I was wrong.

‘What time we going home?’ a young man called Zeke asked.

Not quite the response I was hoping for.

‘Err, three pm.’

‘What?’ A chorus of complaints rang out.

‘You mean we’re here all day?’ Tommo said.

‘No, only until
three pm.’

‘Nah man, I’m not doing it,’ Zeke
declared.

‘Well, that’s your choice. But I think you’ll find it impacts on your benefits if you leave.’

‘Didn’t say I was going nowhere, just that I ain’t doing nothing.’

‘That’s a moron,’ Jade added.

Zeke turned to glare at her but she just gave him a smile. However he obviously elected to not take the issue further.

‘Isn’t that right Prof?’ Jade asked.

‘Well I feel it’s a little harsh to insult Zeke, but I would point out that seeing as you’re here anyway you may as well do something constructive rather than sit around wasting your time?’ I directed the last part to Zeke.

‘Nooo Prof! I didn’t mean that!’ Jade called out. ‘Well, yeah he is a moron actually,’ this caused sniggers within the group. ‘What I mean is about what he said. “I ain’t doing nothing”, that means you’re doing something don’t it?’

‘Err, that’s right it does.’

‘And that’s called a moron, or something.’

‘Oh, an Oxymoron?’

‘Yep, that’s the one!’ she said snapping her fingers at me.

I was momentarily caught off guard; Jade knew what an Oxymoron was as well as that the possibility of contradicting yourself in a sentence could create an alternate meaning. What other depths did these kids have?

‘Mr Ellis used to say that to us all, the time didn’t he?’ Kurt asked.

‘Yeah that’s right,’ Jade responded.

‘I’m sorry I’m lost here. Mr Ellis?’

‘Our form teacher,’ Tommo offered. ‘We all went to the same school and all got the same detentions.’

‘Oh, I see.’

I soldiered on until lunch time and in order to assess their writing skills I asked them all to write a short piece on themselves. This was again met with howls of derision but once I explained that there was a need to be able to write legibly in order to have an enhanced chance of getting a job all but one attempted the exercise with varying results.

The abstainer was Sam who point blank refused to put pen to paper, unsure of how to deal with the situation I elected to overlook his belligerence for the time being in the hope that peer pressure might change his attitude.

Following lunch I attempted to introduce a simple arithmetic exercise.

‘Oh man maths!’ Tommo exclaimed. ‘It’s like being at school.’

‘You never went anyway!’ Kurt chided. ‘Prof though, maths dude? We have done loads of work this morning, can’t we do something less boring?’

“Loads of work”? One paragraph, of on average three lines constituted loads of work? Oh good grief! I had four weeks at three days a week to complete the course work. At this rate I felt I was going to need four months. I needed to be able to draw on something, anything to get through to
three o’clock.

‘Well we have a lot of ground to cover in a short time.’

‘Oh, Prof. Lighten up!’ Jade suggested. ‘We are only sixteen!’

Sixteen? That was it!

‘Ok…… have you guys ever heard of Nefertiti ?’

‘Doesn
’t he play for Real Madrid?’ Zeke asked.

‘Err no.
She
was an Egyptian girl who became queen when she was only fifteen.’ I said looking at Jade. With no response I pressed on, ‘This was a long time ago and back then women were second class citizens in Egypt.’

‘A bit like here, now, then?’ Jade said.

‘Maybe, but…..she did something about it aged only fifteen. She changed a nation.’

‘How?’ Kurt asked.

Unbelievable, I had them! I looked from face to face and even Sam appeared to be waiting for my response.

‘She married the Pharaoh Amenhotep who was the king and they had a daughter. Legend has it that when the baby was born the palace bells rang out. It was tradition that it rang three times for a boy and twice for a girl. She demanded that the bells ring three times for her daughter as she felt that a Princess was just as important as a Prince.’

‘That’s cool,’ Jade said. ‘Girl power!’

‘Indeed.’

‘The Mummy!’ Zeke shouted.

‘Pardon?’

‘The Mummy.’ Tommo repeated as if this would make it clearer.

‘Y’know? With Brendan Frazier?’ Kurt suggested.

I had no idea what they were talking about.

‘Brendan F..?

‘Frazier. The actor.’ Jade said. The bewilderment I was feeling was obviously evident on my face, ‘
The Mummy
is a film, it has Amo…, Amona…., that Pharaoh in it.’

‘Amenhotep?’

‘That’s the Geezer!’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s a cool film.

The rest of the group added their ascent to this and I elected to end the session there, mainly because I had no idea where to go from that point. I needed to take stock and consider my strategy.

‘Ok, guy’s it is two thirty.’

‘Can we go?’ Tommo asked.

‘Ye….’

I never got a chance to finish my sentence before the room was cleared.

‘See you tomorrow,’ I said to the empty desks.

‘So how did it go?’ Stacy asked a little later.

‘To be honest I am not sure. They didn’t kill me at least, so that’s something.’

She laughed and although I was intentionally applying a small amount of dry humour I was not straying too far from my true feelings. I was confused about the session, had it been a success? Or did that even matter as I had now completed one day and only had eleven to go? Yes it mattered, I told myself. Despite everything else I was a professional and I wanted to do a good job.

‘I ended up talking about Nefertiti.’

‘Who?’

Lord above! Was I going to have to repeat the session for Stacy? I was hoping to get some feedback, maybe a little guidance but I had to accept I was the educator here after all.

‘The Egyptian Queen.’

‘Oh right. Blimey how did you get onto that?’

I recounted the session to her and she waited patiently as I concluded my monologue, then she said ‘Sounds like it went really well.’

‘You think?’ I was genuinely surprised. I had survived but “went really well” was perhaps an overstatement.

‘’Yeah, let’s see. They all.
..but one, completed the written work you set?’ I nodded. ‘Do you have any idea how much of an achievement that is? These guys have spent their whole school career avoiding anything that looked remotely like English and Maths. You get nearly all of them to write something first time out, that’s fab!’

‘Then using
Nefer-whatshername.’

‘Titi.’

‘Titi, blinding absolutely blinding!’

I assumed this meant “good”, not detrimental to their eyesight, ‘How so?’

‘You made it relevant to them, using her age. That all is not lost just cos you’re sixteen, you could tell by the way they reacted to your story and talked about the film, top stuff Marcus! Course the acid test is gonna be if they come back tomorrow.’

I had not been expecting this, was she just soft soaping me to keep me engaged or did she mean it? She seemed like a very genuine person and it would be gratifying to receive this type of comment in any walk of life. I felt like I had done some good, maybe
I could build on it, perhaps…

I stopped myself, there was a risk that I might get too involved and that was pointless, this was short term after all.

‘Do you mind if I check my emails?’

‘Habit?’

‘Sorry?’

‘That’s what you said this morning, habit.’

Oh yeah, of course.’

It was now
four thirty, so ten thirty in the USA. I opened up my inbox with a sense of rising expectation; there was nothing new since I had checked this morning. I left it open for as long as I could in the hope something would appear. Stacy walked in, ‘You fit then?’

I quickly shut the email window down, ‘Pardon?’ I was not out of shape but mainly exercised my mind rather than my body. Would I call myself fit? I was not sure.

‘Ready to go?’

‘Oh right, yeah.’

‘You got a coat?’

‘No why?’

‘Cos it’s peeing it down.’

I looked out of the window and my heart sank, I would have to wait until tomorrow to check for Hank’s response and I was going to get soaked on the way home as well.

‘Shut the PC down and I’ll give you a lift home.’

‘You sure?’

‘Course! Can’t have my top teacher ringing in sick cos he’s got a cold!’