Chapter 6: Mateo and The Field Guide Manual From Afghanistan

In eighth grade, Mateo was already a father, working several hours after school and on weekends, and trying to figure out how to become legal so that he could stay in the United States with his new son. As his teacher for English as a Second Language (ESL), I was able to loop grades with Mateo and had known him since he was a short, skinny sixth grader who often jammed his locker and got frustrated at having to write or read anything.

Now, a young man sat in front of me in my middle school classroom. He walked with a steady gait, free of the swagger of many eighth graders. He often tilted his head toward the ground while walking, as if inspecting the floor tiles. When sitting in class, he squinted from the back of the room since he was often too tired to remember to bring his glasses to school; he did not wear them at work. However, he refused to move to the front of the room. He alternated days when he would pay attention to me or his peers (I think this was due to the sleep/work ratio of the previous night). He refused to carry any items between classes. He would often come to my class and others without notebooks, pencils, or texts. I learned to have a corner of my room where I kept his supplies. This way I knew he had no excuse for not being prepared for success. If he refused to take notes, I would have him take a picture of the board with his camera. I was not letting him off that easily! He was not overly concerned with fashion, but was obsessively clean and did not like sticky hands, marker, or any other markings on his hands or arms. He had grown so much taller since sixth grade when he was shorter than my 5 feet 5-inch frame; now, in eighth grade, he was closer to 5 feet 10 inches or so. He was rarely disrespectful toward his teachers. If anything, he was very polite, even when refusing to work. He did not appreciate when others were disrespectful and would offer an overt comment about being “disrespectful” when such occurred in class. He was, overall, a great person, student, and child. Even though, he often refused to complete his work, he was clever, calm, funny, and enjoyed the camaraderie of school. Over the years, however, he often told me that he was not smart and it appeared that changing that thought process was going to be my mission during his eighth grade year.