Teachers just don't understand
by Charniece McGregory

Do you think your teachers understand where you're coming from? Well I know that I have and you would be surprised to know how some of the teachers right here at EOC acted when they were in high school.
One 10th grade teacher at EOC who was arrested and disrespected by OPD (Oakland Police Department) during his senior year at Oakland high school says that he never felt like dropping out because “I understood why I needeed to complete my schooling and how it was connected to the things I wanted to do in my future, and I also had supportive parents that allowed me to relize my purpose,” he says. He also says that he sometimes ditched school because he felt like he was being challenged or respected as a person that he appreciated the teachers that gave him respect. The teachers that didn't respect him didn't get any respect from him.

One 11th grade teacher at EOC says that there were just as many drugs and violence in her school as there is now. In her sophomore year she thought about dropping out mostly because she didn't see the point to school and she was failing her classes.She didn't like the teachers that disrespected her. She said that she had teachers that didn't even know her name half way through the year and teachers that questioned her abilities as a student, “they assumed that I was a gang banger and I couldn't read,” she says. The teachers she liked had a good sense of humor, respectected her and didn't question her intellect.

I know that I like teachers that relate to me in the classroom and have a sense of humor. It is important to know that your teachers went through the same stuff that you went through in high school and that they can relate to you in the classroom.