Part 2...

I'll just stay up later...so I can finish the story.

So...Cleo tries to offer me money because he thinks teachers don't make a lot. Honest to God, the kid was completely genuine and he was offering me money because he thought I needed it. Say whatever you want about him the kid didn't come from much of a background but he had a good heart.

The vice principal didn't observe me that day, but he did come the next day during history class. That day we were watching Roots. When he walked in I shut the movie off. The kids already had a worksheet with some comprehension questions on it.

Before I could even ask anything Cleo raised his hand, "They need to whoop them slaves or thay won't listen, right?"

I didn't know what to say! "Well, I think the thing we need to take away from this was how awful the institution of slavery was."

Cleo, my budy, my favorite student, says, "Man, everybody had slaves back in the day. But you probably need to whoop 'em this way they do the work. I know I'd whoop 'em for not listening."

The vice princiapl was holding up a notebook infront of his face because he was laughing. I had 13 kids in this class 10 of them were black! I tried to redirect the discussion. I started to discuss that the need for cotton and tobacco as a source of money was a reason for the expansion of slavery.

Cleo raised his hand again. "Just cotton and tobacco...no drugs or nothing right? Cuz I think they have slaves in Mexico or something that still grow weed." Cleo turned in his seat to address the vice principal. "Aye yo...we was talking about that and I think if you sell drugs to kids you should be killed." He turned back towards me, "Ain't that right? You always saying to us don't sell drug! You sell drugs to kids you should be shot"

CLEO! He was killing me. I thought for sure I'd get hauled into the office to talk about this!

"Kill them with kindness Cleo! I always say kill them with kindness"

The vice princiapl started to laugh a little bit and interjected himself into the conversation and I guess my history lesson turned into a group discussion about life in general, which is sometimes more appropriate when you work with the population I worked with. After 30 minutes or so the vice princiapl left. He said he really enjoyed my class,but he was a two-faced liar so I was still nervous about getting hauled in and repremanded.

As soon as the door shut I looked right at Cleo. I couldn't be mad at him. He was making his best effort to try and make me look good infront of my boss. Cleo was smiling big. "We did good right?"

"You did better than good", I said.
"You get a raise or something now?"
"Probably," I said back.
"Yo...he was diggin' the whole class. He liked (pronounced like-ded) it when we was talking about the slaves and how you need to handle business with them."
"I think he liked everything."
Cleo said, "We was all raising our hands, nobody did nothing stupid. That was a good job right?"

How could I get mad? I had a class full of criminals who just thought that they put out their best effort for me in front of my boss. The fact that 75% of the class was black and advocating for slavery was probably a discussion for another day. Or the fact that they all agreed that selling drugs to kids should be punishable by death...despite the fact that all of them did it...we could talk about that another day too.

Before dismissal Cleo came up to my desk. He asked me if I was proud of him. I was.
Then he asked me if after this observation if I'd be doing better with money...and if I needed any he could spot me a couple of bucks and I'd never have to pay him back.

I'm not sure if this is a heart warming story or....the complete opposite