During the regular semester, I teach Freshman Comp. at a state university. The students, while ethnically diverse, are pretty much all middle- to lower middle class, and their lives are relatively drama-free.
This summer, however, I had a change in scenery, even though it was only a couple of miles away. I taught a summer school class at a Historically Black and still predominantly minority-attended community college.
Even though I was the proverbial fish out of water, I loved it there. The students were lively and eager to learn. Many, if not most of them, did not come straight from high school. They had been to war or to prison. They lived in another country or raised a family. Some of them were changing careers. All of them had a story to tell that did not involve high school. More below.
My most challenging student was Carla. She had dropped in and out of the college since 1987. As her transcripts revealed, she would pass a few classes (barely), fail a few classes, disappear, and re-appear a few semesters later. She always sat in the back of the class and did not socialize with the other students, who referred to her as "the lady who talks to herself."
During the first half of the summer term, whenever Carla contributed to the class discussion, she provided valuable insight and was personable and charming. Then, one day, however, she started talking in class and wouldn't/couldn't shut up. I was not quite sure who she was talking to and what she was responding to. What she said was clearly English, but it didn't make any sense. All I could tell was that it had something to do with conspiracy theories.
I have to say that I didn't handle the situation very well. I basically stood there at first with my jaw on the floor (I hadn't seen that one coming), and then I was busy reprimanding the other students, who were getting the giggles. Finally class was over and Carla left.
I told one of the permanent faculty members about the incident and mentioned that my professional training had not prepared me for an encounter with full-on mental illness. She told me to observe the student carefully and decide whether it would become necessary to report her to the administration.
The next day, Carla appeared in class with a sheepish grin on her face and said that she tended to "get upset if she didn't get her coffee in the morning." She added that due to financial constraints, she hadn't been able to afford her medicine.
The rest of summer school went fine, and I almost forgot about Carla -- until I saw the Sarah Palin interviews on TV. I listened to the VP candidate's incoherent ramblings and realized that they sounded strangely familiar. Then, when I read the transcripts, it finally hit me: Sarah Palin off script sounds EXACTLY like Carla off her meds.