A Miracle

I had a meeting this morning about Jamal. We’ve been meeting once a week or more to try to figure out what to do about him. We’ve been identifying the issues. We planned to do some testing on Thursday.
This afternoon, Jamal barged into my honors class in the middle of the period.
“Wrong class, Jamal,” I said. He pulled a piece of paper from behind his back. It’s a withdrawal slip. Jamal is moving to another school system. Thank you, God.
We had an assembly with all the seventh grade students today. The principals were talking to them about discipline. Of course, all the students were being rude and disrespectful (especially during the part of the assembly on respect). For the most part I have been impressed with how well our students have behaved this year, especially compared to how they’ve behaved in past years. The principals, however, recognize that there is still a lot of room for improvement. I’m glad. I believe that our students rise and fall to the level of expectations placed upon them. They are doing so much better this year. It’s hard to imagine how high their potential actually is.