The morning class that changed everything Alhassan Susso
The summer after my first
year of teaching,
I decided to teach summer school.
Teaching summer school that year
was not the best idea,
not because of the unpleasant experience
that my students and I had,
but because I was expecting my first
child.
As luck would have it,
my wife went into labor the night
before summer school started.
That’s called life.
So I went back to school three days
later,
when she came home with our
daughter.
The bell rang, two students came in.
Five minutes into class,
it was still these two students.
I stopped and asked what was going on,
they both started giggling.
One of them said, “Mister you really want
to know the truth?”
I say, “Ah yeah.”
“Mister, on Monday, there were 22
kids in this class.
When they found out you were the teacher,
they all stopped coming.”
I didn’t laugh because I was stunned.
Stunned and speechless. I asked, “Why are
you two here?”
They’re like, “Oh we need to graduate, this
is the only class holding us up.
So once so we’re good we only have four
weeks to deal with you.”
So I continued with the lesson.
On my two hour train ride home that
evening, I cried like a baby.
I cried because I was asking this
question: why?
Why did I leave my three-day-old
daughter at home
to go try teach students who
apparently did not want my help?
But giving up wasn’t an option for me
because of the reason I became a teacher.
I became a teacher to empower young
immigrants
to live a life that my baby sister did
not have
after she was denied visa to seek
medical treatment in the U.S.,
after medical treatment was exhausted back
home in the Gambia where I came from.
The only question for me was, how do I
change this narrative?
In figuring out how to change my approach,
I came across a quote from an
American motivational speaker
by the name of Jim Rohn.
The quote said, “Success is something
you attract by the person you become.
You don’t pursue it.”
In other words, you cannot provide what
you do not possess.
If I want to have a joyful, kind, and
empathetic classroom,
I need to demonstrate joy, kindness, and
empathy in my classroom.
In trying to figure out how to improve
my own and my students' performance,
I have learned that graduation rates
are linked
more to validating our students'
experiences than test preps.
When I started to take the time to spend
time to learn about my students' stories,
their experiences, their backgrounds,
that’s when our relationship transformed.
Because, you see, my first year of teaching,
while I was jumping up and down
about the French Revolution,
the child in front of me did not eat
breakfast.
I learned my third year of teaching that only
28% of my students were going to college,
and out of that, 50% would
drop out within a year.
When I dig deeper, I discovered that the
rest of them were going to work
at minimum wage jobs.
I knew that was going to lead to a cycle
of intergenerational poverty,
and I knew something had to be done.
Sometimes we are always looking for a
path,
and there are times where you have to go
where there are no paths, and leave a trail.
So I decided to do something
about this, and went on a quest
to figure out how to help my students live
meaningful lives beyond the classroom.
What I have learned led to the creation
of the morning class.
Why is it called the morning class?
Because when I came up with the concept,
I had no name.
Teachers. We know how that works.
One of the students said, “Well, since
it’s gonna happen in the morning,
let’s just call it the morning class.”
You know, I don’t know about you, but
you know at times
when you have students
in your class in which
their friends listen more to them
than they actually listen to you?
Mhmm. Yeah so over the years
I tried to change the name,
everybody still calls it
the morning class.
Let’s just leave it at that.
The morning class is a before-school
program
that empowers kids to live a
meaningful life in the world socially,
professionally, academically and
economically.
It is built on five essential skills:
developing the right attitude and
mindset,
creating a clear goals and
vision for the future,
communication skills, leadership, and
financial management.
Well, we start with mindset and emotional
mastery.
This is when students are able
to uncover their goals,
their beliefs, their vision,
and their values
in order to transform their lives.
This leads to a daily practice of
gratitude and journaling,
and when students are able to uncover
their emotions,
and have the language
to express their feelings,
that’s when their self-worth
begins to take shape.
It is difficult, if not impossible,
to strive for something you cannot see.
So the second component of the program
focuses on developing a clear vision
and goals for the future.
This is done through a dream board
activity,
where students are able to create three
components:
personal goals, professional aspirations,
and social contributions.
And they will gather together to work on
their social contribution goals
to effect change within their communities.
This has led to multiple community
service projects,
such as working at homeless shelters,
planting trees in the Bronx,
and creating a video series to educate
families and to help teens
to combat teen pregnancy,
which video now has been used with
over 500 families in the Bronx.
This third component, and the fourth is
communication and leadership.
This is when students are able to develop
effective communication skills
through speaking, proper eye contact,
and proper handshake,
and they’re also able to uncover their
values and rules that guide their life,
so they could set their own standards
as well as teach others how to treat them.
And the last component is financial
management,
where students go ahead to open bank
accounts, investment accounts,
and build their credit history.
At the core of the program are the
weekend retreats that we take.
Twice a year, we’ll go away for an entire
weekend
for students to reflect and plan their
futures.
The most difficult part of this weekend,
however, is during our forgiveness exercise
because my students come from a lot of
traumatic experiences
and they have they’ve been carrying
a lot of pain with them over the years,
and this would be the first time they
will have the opportunity
to express those emotions.
Over the years, I have heard it all.
“I was raped when I was 12, and today
is the first time I’m talking about it.”
“My father left when I was two and he
still doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“I’m gay and I’m not sure how to tell my
parents.”
“If my father dies tonight, I will not
shed a single tear.”
How do you forgive somebody who
continues to intentionally hurt you?
These are difficult moments, but what
ends up being special about it
is how students support each other
during the weekend,
throughout the school year and beyond,
because their motto is
“We are in this together.”
And as a teacher, when you have 50 kids
looking at you and seeking answers
to issues you have no answers for,
all I could do is to ensure them
that their past would
not equal their future,
because it is the choices that we make
that determine the lives that we live.
My job then is to get them the proper
counseling that they need.
Upon our return from the weekend retreat,
I connect them with professionals
within and outside of our building,
so that they could get the proper
care that they need in order to
overcome that aspect of their life.
When this program first started,
everybody thought this would not work
because our students are notorious for
coming to school late,
and this takes place an hour
before school.
People said, “Students who don’t come
to school on time,
what makes you think they’re going
to come an hour early?
Doesn’t make any sense.”
I do know one thing though:
we all spend time where we see value.
So the first day of the program, 28
students joined the program,
all – sorry 29 students.
100% graduated, 100% went on
to college.
The second year, 42 students.
All 42 graduated, 40 out of 42 went into
college.
The two that did not were undocumented.
Last year, over 70% of our
graduating seniors
were actually coming to school
an hour early.
As a result, our graduation rate went
from 31% when I started at my school
to 84.9% last year.
While those numbers are great, what I
appreciate more than anything
are the personal transformations I
witness in my students.
Each graduate has a vision board and a
plan for what they want to achieve
and contribute in this world.
Each one of the students who have joined
this program have quit drinking,
binge eating, joining gangs,
doing drugs and dropping out of school.
That was not something I thought about
when this program started,
because the idea was to
empower them financially.
And a quick story on that, I always joke
with my students,
“If you succeed, you have to give me 10%.”
And they’re like, “Sure Mister.”
So two, three years ago, I had
this Yemeni kid who said,
we went through a financial
education seminar
and upon our return from the weekend,
he was like,
“Mister, well you I’ll give you 30% when
I succeed.”
He never went to college, but today he
owns three grocery stores in New York City,
making more money than me.
I still did not receive my 30% yet.
For me at this point, it’s just a feeling
of gratitude
because the day I was announced as the
2019 New York State Teacher of the Year,
over a hundred of my former students
showed up to school within four hours.
They have traveled far and wide.
One of them got on the train from
Baltimore that day to be with us.
She was the first student who entered
my class the first year of teaching.
She said, “Mister, I came to say two things.”
I said, “Yes?”
“Number one, how horrible you were the
first year.”
“Okay.”
“But number two to also tell you something
I’ve never mentioned before.”
I said, “Okay.”
“When I was in your class,
the lessons–”
and by the way I ended up teaching that
kid for three consecutive years,
God bless me, okay –
“When I was in your class, the
lessons I was learning not only helped me,
but they helped transform my family.
Because my mom was battling
cancer when I was in your class
and the lessons I was learning,
I was passing them on to her.”
She said, “My mom passed away six
months ago, but the day she passed away,
the poster hanging over her bed came
from your classroom,
and the poster reads,
‘To live is to suffer.
To survive is to find meaning
in your suffering.’
My mom had meaning in her life
because of you. Thank you so much.”
What then I have come
to realize then is
my students come from
30 different countries,
they come from different backgrounds,
different beliefs, different cultures.
At the end of the day, here is what I
know to be true:
We are all seeking the same thing.
What I want, what you want, what our
students want,
what everybody you will ever meet wants
is one thing: we are all seeking validation.
If we can help to validate our students'
experiences,
their academic world will transform.
Because as students' personal
lives develop, their academics will follow.
Thank you.