Teacher Jerome White knew from the first moment he met Donald Meyer that the student was a math whiz —and that Meyer was very aware of his natural abilities. White struggled in his first year teaching Donald pre-calculus at New Orleans' Lusher High School to convince the student to focus in class, do his homework, or recognize that he might have something to learn.
"It wasn't a malevolent act on his part," White says. But "he seemed to think he was above it all."
Nonetheless, Donald earned good grades, and after several months of teaching the student, White felt like they hit something of a stride. That was a good thing: White taught all of Lusher’s most advanced pre-calculus and calculus classes, and he knew that he would likely have Donald in class for three straight years.
Donald’s junior year went fairly smoothly, and he aced his first Advanced Placement Calculus exam. But by the start of the student’s senior year, everything changed dramatically. Donald was wrestling with a lot of problems outside of school, and he struggled to complete much work at all. White faced a challenge that would have seemed unbelievable just a year earlier: Convincing the math whiz that he could pass math.
This story is part of a podcast called What My Students Taught Me, which features a teacher reflecting on a particularly challenging student, whenever possible in counterpoint with the student’s version of the same events. You can subscribe to the podcast here.
This piece was co-published at the atlantic.com. It was produced by the Teacher Project, an education reporting fellowship at Columbia Journalism School dedicated to elevating the voices of teachers and students.
