I Just Don’t Know If I Can Do It.
“I don’t know what I should do about Spanish 3,” Shane told me after his eight-minute orientation class. He’d gone from taking on-level Spanish in middle school (for high school credit) to honors-level Spanish in high school.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I really didn’t understand anything that was said. And when the teacher asked if anyone was struggling, the only person who raised her hand was the smartest girl in the class last year.”
I thought about that. It sounded to me like Shane was struggling, but he hadn’t raised his hand. I wondered how many other nervous freshmen didn’t want to raise their hands.
“I just don’t know if I can do it,” he said. “But I don’t know if I want to quit Spanish either.”
“You do need to take one P.E. class for graduation,” I reminded him. “I will find out what P.E. classes are available and, while you’re checking out Spanish 3, you can think about your options.”
“Okay,” he said. “But I just don’t know if I will understand anything in there.”
We had four days before school started. During that time, I emailed Shane’s counselor and got a list of P.E. options: Yoga, Soccer, Fitness, and Basketball. Then I spent three hours – yes, three hours – working up different four-year plans for Shane’s high school career. The problem with Spanish is that three years isn’t enough to be fluent. And if Shane takes all the high school electives he said he wanted to take, he may only have room for this one Spanish class.
So I worked diligently on showing Shane exactly what he could expect if he did – or did not – drop Spanish 3. There was the IBCP video production program with and without Spanish, the Broadcast Media option with and without Spanish, and the No Plan At All plan with and without Spanish. Basically he has one simple choice: IBCP or Spanish.
I showed Shane all of his options. He thought about the different P.E. classes. We agreed that he should try Spanish 3 for a full week before dropping out.
The four days passed, and he went back to school where, during 8th period, he had a full 46 minutes to determine his future success in Honors Spanish 3.
Then, at home, Shane said, “I think I’m going to do okay in Spanish 3. I didn’t have any trouble understanding stuff today.”
The next day, just in case, I asked him if he still wanted to stay in the class.
“Yeah,” he said. “I understand pretty much everything and I really like it.”
There’s still no resolution on how he’s going to squeeze in Honors Spanish 4 next year. But I tossed the plans into the recycling, just the same.
Shane had made his decision.