LAKEWOOD, KENT STATE, OHIO, STUDENTS INTERVIEW:
INTERVIEWER: NOUREDDINE BOUTAHAR
Number of students interviewed: 22
Sex: 13 females and 9 males
Grades: 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th.
Age categories: 14-18
Ethnicity: 5 African Americans, 3 Moslems, 14 White Americans.
Number of students interviewed: 22
Sex: 13 females and 9 males
Grades: 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th.
Age categories: 14-18
Ethnicity: 5 African Americans, 3 Moslems, 14 White Americans.
I interviewed 22 students from Lakewood High School. All the students were willing to be interviewed and showed a lot of interest and enthusiasm to talk about their school, their teachers, their everyday life and the like.
The first question I asked my informants was about their favorite subjects. The students did not agree on one subject as their favorite. They said they liked the subjects they were good at. Yet, English, math, and history were the ones mentioned by the students.
As for the characteristics of a good teacher, the students answers revolved around the teachers who engage everybody, teachers who made the students learn, teachers who did not only teach content but taught the students, teachers who were understanding and let them express how they felt, teachers who cultivated a good relationship with students, and teachers who did not overload the students with to much homework. Their favorite teachers were often one or two and they even gave names. They did not like teachers who did not take time to teach. They said that those teachers gave students sheets and let them figure it out on their own.
As for community work, some students said they did it especially during their free time. They did it for altruistic motives because they wanted to be better citizens and make the community a better place to live in.
Concerning the question of part time jobs, very few students said they had a job and used the money to have fun, pay for their phone bills, to buy liquor and whatever they wanted. Some informants said that they saved for college.
As for the question on racism, all the students agreed that there still was some kind of discrimination in their school. They explained that racism was often directed toward African Americans. They added that the Arabs and moslems – who are a very large group here - were not discriminated against as much as the African Americans. Some students mentioned the fact that the blacks isolated themselves and felt themselves victims and were usually sensitive. A few African American students pointed out that there were no black teachers in school. They added that they had only black guards.
All my informants said they had cellphones. Most of them believed they could not live without them and they got lost if they did not have their phones with them. They used them to stay in touch with their friends by texting and calling. As for music they said they used I-pods which almost everyone had. They also told me that they all had computers – laptops and desktops - and they sometimes had more than one at home. Some said they had only one and had to share it with the other members of the family. They said they used them to do homework, chat with friends, listen to music, and use My Space which most of them mentioned.
Except for the three Moslem young ladies who spoke their mother tongue in addition to English, none of the other students spoke a foreign language. However most of them took either Spanish or French for sometime but did not keep up studying it because they thought foreign languages were difficult to learn. Some of them said that they needed to live in a foreign country. Most of them agreed that Arabic should be introduced in their school. They gave as a reason the fact that many countries spoke Arabic and the presence of a large Arab community in their town and in their school.
Twenty one out of twenty two students approved of the current school timing. They said that it suited those who had a part time job and those who didn’t could have the rest of the day for themselves. The only one who disapproved of it and who who said that school should start later, around ten, added that he stayed up late and would like to sleep a bit late in the morning.
My young informants were divided on the issue of dress codes. Those who were for it said that students should act like students, learn to be disciplined, and be prepared to abide by the rules and law. They went so far as to make derisive remarks on the way some students dressed and wore their hair. Others preferred that students wore whatever they liked and should have the right to express themselves especially because they lived in a democratic country. They even said that dress codes were against free speech which is at the heart of the American democracy.
Only two of the interviewed students wanted to grow up quickly. They liked their age and they did not want to be over twenty three years. They wanted to stay young to enjoy life and avoid the responsibility of putting food on the table and a roof over the head.
The Students did not agree on one job when it comes to the job of their dream. They all wanted jobs that paid well and preferred contract jobs to life long jobs. Most boys wanted to have a sports career and looked up to famous American sportsmen like LeBron James and others.
My informants liked holidays and free time. In their free time, they liked hanging out with friends, draw, sing, talk to friends on the phone, text, play games, listen to music. However, they did not agree on one kind of music. Their preferences ran the gamut from Metal to Country.
I asked my informants about drug use, smoking and pregnancy in their school. Some of them talked about it and said that drugs were pervasive and were readily available at school and a few of them said that they tried it. Some of them also, especially males, said that they smoked and even drank outside school. Almost everyone agreed that pregnancy is common at school but they could not give a number or a percentage. They also mentioned that the reasons behind smoking and drug use was that students wanted to experience things and they made mistakes and got hooked. computers
Almost half of the students agreed with security at school. They said they felt more secure at school with security around because they wanted to learn and be something in the world and wanted to be protected from disruptive trouble makers. The other half complained that security often exaggerate and wanted to get students into trouble.
Most of the students did not approve of the American policy in the Middle East. They thought the Americans were wrong to go there because there were no arms of mass destruction. Some of them said that the war in Iraq tarnished the American image worldwide. However a couple of students said that they did not care. Almost all of my informants said that they get their news from TV, especially CNN and Foxnews.
My last question was whether these students drove. Very few said that they did and a couple of them added that they had their own cars. Many of those who did not said that they wanted a car of their own.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr Sean Wheeler and Mr Shane Sullivan for arranging for me to interview these students. It was an opportunity to get to know how the American youth live their daily and school life, their problems and concerns, their hobbies and interests as well as their educational and vocational aspirations. I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope it will work for them.
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