Student Case Study - Rebel Without A Cause

It was the first day of school and Wallace was preparing to meet his grade 11 English class for the first time. He was feeling both excited and nervous when his supervisor asked to join him in the classroom for the first 10 minutes of the lesson. A week earlier Wallace had transferred to this school when another teacher left unexpectedly. He had heard from his new coworkers that he would be in the classroom with some of the more badly behaved students. This was the first time he heard Tony’s name mentioned. According to office gossip, the teacher who left would usually go to the classroom, play a movie and give some homework. He did very little to facilitate meaningful learning experiences and was not respected by the students. Wallace entered the classroom and stood before a relatively small group of 16 year olds; fourteen in total. In the back of his mind, he was wondering which of them was Tony. He was surprised to find each student sitting quietly in rows and listening carefully. It seemed the comments his coworkers had been making about bad behavior were completely off-base. What a relief!

Two weeks in and Wallace was starting to feel exasperated. Tony, he discovered, was a good actor. When Wallace’s supervisor was present he was an angel, but when it was Wallace only, he was a rebel without a cause. Or, was there a cause? To make things worse, Tony was kind of a ring leader. His classmates were more likely to be well behaved when Tony was absent and more likely to be poorly behaved when he was present. Wallace would usually go back to the teacher’s office after lessons and silently reflect on what went well and what could have gone better. He often found himself thinking thoughts like, “Today’s lesson should’ve been so interesting to them! Why can’t they show me the same respect I show them? If only that damn Tony wasn’t stirring up trouble from the back every lesson!” It was in a moment of frustrated reflection that Wallace had the idea to seek out Tony for a one on one conversation outside the classroom. He thought, there must be something behind these behaviors. It was already Friday afternoon, so he went to get the conversation started before the next week ensued.

“Hey Tony, do you have a minute?” Wallace asked.

“Okay , what?” Tony responded.

“Can we talk outside? It’s too loud in here.”

Tony reluctantly followed Wallace out the door and the began walking towards the soccer field.

“I was just wondering how you’re doing, buddy. Is everything okay?” Wallace inquired.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I noticed you were sleeping for part of the lesson today. Is everything ok at home? Are you sleeping ok at night?”

At this point Tony’s demeanor changed. He seemed both ashamed and confounded. He explained that he hadn’t been sleeping well recently because he was going out to the bar. His mom and dad weren’t around much and didn’t pay attention to him when they were. Wallace and Tony were already rounding the perimeter of the field and on their way back to the classroom when Tony said with quivering voice,

“My parents are really rich and will buy me anything, but they don’t understand that I just want them.”

Wallace was sleepless Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He felt he understood now why Tony was acting out. Tony wanted the attention he didn’t get at home. He felt loved when his classmates laughed because of rebellious behaviors. He felt respected because his classmates followed him. When Wallace got back to class on Monday he had a new plan. Instead of trying to get Tony to behave, he prepared an activity which allowed Tony to lead his classmates according to his strengths. Tony could be loud if he wanted to, had a sense of humor, and was an expert at arguing. Wallace had prepared a debate and asked Tony to be one of the team leaders. Tony seemed excited and asked if the students could choose the topic.

“Great idea, Tony! Any ideas?” Wallace asked.

“Sex!” Tony shouted.

His classmates started laughing and Wallace suddenly felt he’d shot himself in the foot.

“Okay, how about this? Students choose the debate topic for today. Everyone share a topic you’d like to debate and we’ll vote anonymously on pieces of paper. The topic with the most votes wins. Tony, I like you’re topic(more laughing), but what is there to debate about sex? Can you create a debatable question for us? Students contributed their ideas and the majority vote went to Tony’s idea: “Should sex-education be taught in Chinese schools?” Tony was himself that day, but different too. While he was still loud, humorous, and argumentative, these behaviors had been directed in a positive way towards a learning goal. He was the most active student that day and even went out of his way to keep classmates on track.

3 months in and Tony was still a primary subject in teacher’s office gossip.

“Can you believe Tony? He’s doing his homework!”

“Yea, he got a C on my end of term exam. Last exam he didn’t even lift his pencil to write his name.”

Wallace had taken to weekly one on one conversations with Tony. Tony opened up to him about his struggles with substance abuse, his strained relationship with family and his depression. Tony began to change because he felt loved and respected and was given opportunities to shine in the classroom.