Cast of Characters: Professor Zero, a male Student, and the student’s Son. Son, 4, is wearing baggy jeans, hi-tops, and a T-shirt. Sticking out of his backpack is his bilingual alphabet book.
Student: Professor Zero, I have come to introduce myself and my son. I have a very great favor to ask you. May I bring my son to your class with me if he is very, very good? My wife starts work at seven, day care is not open until nine, your class is at eight, it is a required class and yours is the only section, and there is a seat open, and I should really take it this semester if I am to graduate next year. I understand completely if you do not find this appropriate, but I was hoping…
Son (shyly): Professor Zero.
PZ (to Son): Would you also like to learn Spanish?
Son (nods gravely).
PZ: Do you like to draw?
Son: Yes.
PZ: Well, part of my class may be interesting to you, but if you are coming every day you may be bored sometimes. You might want to bring some pencils or a coloring book, just in case.
Son: All right.
Student (relaxing): Thank you.
So, Student and Son came to class every day, sometimes bringing donuts for everyone. Although he was somewhat shy to speak and never did any of the writing assignments, Son’s average was not the worst in the class. He was always very, very good and he drew pictures while the rest of the class took tests.
His father, the Student, had more trouble. This was not a beginning Spanish class and although he had taken the prerequisites, he had been out of school for some time. He had forgotten a great deal, and although he studied as much as he had time to do, he got a 55 on every assignment. 55, when he needed to pass with a D. I told him that if he could make a D on the final examination I would give him a D in the class.
When he turned in the final examination he stood watching me grade it and add up the points, to see whether he had managed a D. But he had once again garnered 55 out of 100 points.
Z: Ay, Student, this is an F+, the grade you have consistently made in this course. It is closer to a D- than it is to an F-. But I am not sure what grade I can fairly give you.
Student: Yes, I can see why I may have to retake this course.
Z: Well, here is what we can do. I will give you extra credit if you can explain to me in Spanish how it is that your son is so very, very good. If you can do that, I will be able to justify a D. You have five minutes to make some notes, look up words, or just collect your thoughts.
Five minutes pass.
Student: During the summer, when I realized I had this scheduling problem and what the solution might be, I went to see a child psychologist for advice. She told me I could convince my son to be very, very good by telling him I needed him to help me go to college. She advised me to dress him exactly like a college student, including the backpack. She told me to be sure never to take him to college wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt or any other childish thing. She said that while at college he must feel he is not being treated as a little boy but as a young man. As far as possible he must feel like a peer. She said that this could be a nice experience for him. He would see what I was doing in college, and he might start thinking about going to college himself.
He did not say this in the best possible Spanish, but he said it well enough.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
A wonderful story!
I am sure both will remember your kindness. And the wisdom of both the male student, and yourself, represent the best kind of schooling.
That is a nice story and an excellent solution, Professor Z.
I think you were too easy on the student in letting him pass with a 55% average 😉 , but you were appropriately generous and humane in permitting his little boy to attend class with him. The little boy undoubtedly learned a lot, and his father was smart to get that advice about encouraging the child to fit in. At the very least, the little boy may grow up assuming that he can go to college, because of his experience in your class!
I’ve had students bring their children to class occasionally, in an emergency, but my students have never asked to bring their child on a regular basis. Even when explaining that their kid is there because the child’s school is closed, or because the babysitter didn’t show, my students are frequently extremely apologetic and deferential, which concerns me: which of their professors (my colleagues!) has made them feel that their perfectly well-behaved children are a problem? (And, like you, I never find the little ones disruptive. It’s the students enrolled in the class who are the disruptive and rude ones!)
love this.
love love love it.
What great advice! Good for him for taking such good care of his child. I hope he did better in his other classes.
Historiann – I also think I was too easy, but I am also too easy on less deserving people with similar situations. The thing is that to have 60% under our ridiculous Spanish teaching system, he would have had to spell better, but could have gotten away with having a much worse accent, much worse listening comprehension, and much less spontaneity in speaking. What a D is according to what standard is the heartrending question in every case. I’d do things differently at a different school, or if this weren’t the new exit course for the language requirement, or if I didn’t have so many students who came in under old requirements, sat out a few years, and now have to finish under new requirements and have very low funding levels.
Joanna – He graduated!
Hi RG and everybody! 🙂
Wow! That’s a great story!
I’m intrigued by the fact that the son’s average was not the lowest in the class (given that this is not because of attendance issues). It says so much about the absence of second-language instruction in K-5 when people are most adept at learning a second language.
I’ve had many students bring children to class on occasion, which has never resulted in any disruption. The only glitch has been that not having children of my own, I haven’t realized until midstream that the material at hand may be inappropriate for children, but that has never become an issue, either.
I *love* the advice from the child psychologist!
(And I empathize about the one-size-fits exit requirement.)
What Rebel Girl said.