This past week, several outside factors have been affecting students in a few of the ESL classes I am in. Norma, who is from Guatemala, has talked about how her mother had to go to traffic court and was taken by immigration. She doesn't know where her mom is and they don't have any way of contacting her. Another instance of this is among two siblings. Their uncle had a similar situation happen to him. Also, another girl, Noami, in the ESL classes has a brother-in-law who is a lawyer and is trying to help both of these families legally.
After hearing of all this that is going on in the class, I couldn't believe that these students are able to compose themselves and still attend class. Typically, for some other students, attendance is a regular problem. They miss school or they come in very late. However, the situation is different for Norma and the siblings dealing with these family issues. They come to school everyday. Their strength baffles me.
Everyone has issues within themselves that they go through, at home, in other relationships, etc. ESL students typically have much more than this. They deal with citizenship problems, not having parents or guardians to always be there for several reasons, having a language barrier while trying to fit in with peers, and don't always have the option to further their education.
All of these issues are outside factors but are brought into the classroom everyday. I think that, in general, it is a good idea to "leave your bag at the door" (meaning to leave any emotional problems or issues going on at the door for the time in class) because students still can get to the objective of the lesson. However, in severe cases, it might not be possible. For ESL students, it might be a better idea to incorporate ways to cope with these issues or to educate students on them, such as options to further their education.
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