week in review

this week has been a bit hectic. during harry's mentor match on tuesday, he was very rude to me. he was trying to argue with me and making nonsense points. then he was unbelievably disrespectful by holding up papers in front of my face to ignore me and talk to his mentor. i just felt really embarrassed, especially since the mentor was seeing me get blown off by harry. before he left the library, i had a small talk with him, saying that i didn't appreciate his rudeness and making nonsense arguments, and that he shouldn't come to group if he plans on being disrespectful. i suppose i shouldn't have said that last part and won't in the future (harry didn't come to group today), but man, he was extremely disrespectful. he needs to understand that i want him in group but he needs to be polite, which is a standard i hold all my students to. it is frustrating working with some of the students because of their attitude because i can't get in their face about it like i would with a peer nor can i let them walk all over me; it's a little difficult walking on this line.

today in group, we discussed stereotypes of all kinds almost. the students really have a lot to say about the collage the other coordinators and i made and i'm glad to know that they are aware of the different kinds of oppression and discrimination that go on in this world. the students really hit on some critical concepts regarding race, heterosexism and gender, and even though they don't have the best words to convey what they know sometimes they are aware, which is an important step in developing consciousness.

working in Y-Scholars is such a roller coaster sometimes. when i have encounters like i did with harry i want to quit because i remember how much i didn't like working with youth in the past, but when i have good days like today i get excited because i am helping my students develop themselves as critical thinkers. blah.