The Things Teachers Shouldn't Say

So already, I generally speak highly of teachers, and most of them deserve it. But at the moment, I'm not as inclined as the Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown is to excuse the behavior of one of his high school teachers. 

I'm talking about the teacher who, in 2014 when he was seventeen years old, predicted that he'd be in jail in five years. When he tweeted about it back then, his "Wow" spoke volumes. And it's speaking volumes again because recently his old tweet has gone viral. 

Speaking somewhat reluctantly about it this week, Brown said that while he hasn't forgotten what his teacher said, and probably won't, he definitely moved beyond it a while ago. The various news articles I've read suggest that, with the support of his family, Brown determined not to let his teacher's mean-spirited forecast mess with his head and deter him from pursuing his plans and dreams with confidence.

That's one of the problems: teachers always have more power and authority than students have. So their most negative pronouncements--even the ones students know immediately and instinctively are false, wrong, or somehow off--still pack an emotional punch. And that emotional punch often doesn't lose its sting when students recall it years later, even when they are making great headway toward their dreams.

Brown's not bitter; as a matter fact, he even tries to explain why his teacher might have spoken so cruelly to him:

The Cobb County Jail**

"In Georgia, the education system isn’t the best. So I don’t really put too much blame on the teacher. It is what it is. You got one teacher handling 35 kids in one class. It’s tough and it’s a lot of teachers that go through stuff and take a lot of crap all day, so who knows what had been going through her mind when she said that."*

You're generous, Jaylen, but it's never okay for a teacher to say such stuff, and if one day she does say such stuff because she's simply run out of her store of "good teacher-ness," she ought to offer a really sincere, heartfelt apology the next day for having so harmfully, negatively vented. It's never okay for a teacher of any skin color to decree sarcastically that a student--any student, but especially an African-American male student, given rates of incarceration for African-American men--is destined for prison. Even if the student is being a real jerk. Which happens. And which doesn't change the fact that ultimately teachers have power and authority that makes their words and behaviors stick.

Yes, I'm speaking emphatically. I'm a former teacher. That's why in the last paragraph, I had to start referring to Brown by his first name, as I would any of my own students. I get it that student behavior can be annoying and ugly and teachers can lose it, and that teacher behavior can be annoying and ugly and students can lose it. But how people lose it and what happens after they lose it is incredibly important--and that's true for both teachers and students.  

Is it ever right for a teacher to suggest that prison might be in a student's future? Yes, but such a possibility should be discussed outside of the classroom; should be motivated by fear or concern for the student, even love; and should be accompanied by an offer of some kind of support. Jaylen's teacher's comment reads to me more like a "gotcha," an abuse of her power in a moment of anger and exasperation, perhaps even understandable anger and exasperation. Schools can and must be places where young people can learn constructive ways to express themselves and handle themselves in relation to others, especially in difficult circumstances. As often as possible, teachers must model those ways.

I admire Jaylen Brown. Earlier this season, he went from being a starter to coming off the bench, and he made the adjustment. Meanwhile, he recently became a vice president of the National Basketball Players' Association Executive Committee,*** and he's already said that he hopes to become president of the NBPA one day..**** Jaylen is resilient, self-starting, and self-directed; and he wants to set a good example. And his teacher still shouldn't have said to him what she said to him in 2014.
 

* Washburn, G. (2019, May 1). Jaylen Brown didn’t want jail tweet to be a story, but it has become one — of motivation. The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2019/05/01/jaylen-brown-didn-want-jail-tweet-story-but-has-become-story-motivation-success/a6AblnIIS4eqgL53zgPUBP/story.html

** Photograph accompanying this blog post, probably taken by the author: Eddie. (2018, April 24). Cobb County Jail [Web log post]. Retrieved May 02, 2019, from http://ethunter.blogspot.com

*** Photograph accompanying this blog post: Grenham, C. (2019, February 18). Jaylen Brown elected as Vice President of the NBPA’s Executive Committee [Web log post]. Retrieved May 02, 2019, from https://www.celticsblog.com/

**** Grenham, C. (2019, February 18). Jaylen Brown elected as Vice President of the NBPA’s Executive Committee [Web log post]. Retrieved May 02, 2019, from https://www.celticsblog.com/