For coaching today, we walked into the classroom and the first thing I noticed was one of my fellow coaches students. Her left eye was completely swollen shut and bruised. I was immediately concerned, so when we were finished I asked my friend about what happened. Apparently the student and some of her friends were playing kickball in one of the local schoolyards. A group of older girls pulled up in a car and began to harass the girls playing kickball. An argument ensued, and resulted in the student falling on a fence and injuring her eye.

This situation horrified me for a few reasons. First, the girls that were harassing the students were much older than typical middle school students. Second, the girl who was in the fight provoked the fighting by inviting the girls in the car to come and stop talking trash.

The whole situation has led me to believe that I still have a lot to learn about the dynamics of the community in which I am working and living. Within the university it is easy to dismiss the characteristics of the surrounding community because it is not visible most of the time. However, people living in the community are facing difficult choices and situations on a daily basis. I know that if I want to be able to understand and empathize with my students, I will need to have a working understanding of their environment.

The reading in Learning denied is going to be very interesting for me, because I have already written a case study report. After the first three sections I have already learned a lot about what I could have done to make my case study even better. I like that Taylor includes so much description and detail. It is clear that her notes throughout the entire process were very clear, and that she did more than written notes, but recorded the time she spent with Patrick. I'm already disturbed by the process Patrick and his parents went through in his early schooling with the constant testing and worries coming from the school officials. I feel sorry for Patrick's parents because they were trying to field complaints from many directions, and they were discovering inconsistencies that raised worries in their own minds. It angers me from their perspective that the school would not listen to their point of view, because they should know Patrick best, as he lives with them. However, I can also imagine that Patrick's teacher has a very different view of him because most kids function and behave differently when they are in school away from their parents and in an environment where there are many other children and lots of distractions. I am interested to see what unfolds with Patrick's story.