Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 4

The part of chapter four which stood out to me the most was the piece about all of the other pressures, besides those in the classroom, that students feel all the time. It talks about the pressure that students put on themselves, that they feel from their parents, their friends, their social circles, their cultures, and a number of other sources. All of these things can take a number of different forms, but no matter how they appear, they all contribute to the overall achievement, or lack thereof, of students.

I think the reason that I liked this idea so much was that I experienced this kind of pressure as a student all throughout high school. I constantly felt that my teachers didn't realize that their class was not the only thing I had going on in my life. They would assign so much homework that it felt like they thought that I went home and had the rest of the night to spend diligently working on an essay. In actuality, I had a family, a job, friends, and responsibilities to take care of and homework was not always at the top of my priorities list. I would think to myself that I had just spent over six hours of my day in school, and now they expect me to spend all night on school too? And now, as I move towards becoming a teacher, I want so desperately to remember that feeling, and to treat my students as adults who have many other things in their lives besides my class. I would hate to think that I'll end up just like those teachers who I hated for complicating my after school life even more.