Photo: Mont Syrie
Usually, sleeping in class is a surefire way to get scolded. However, as high school teacher Monte Syrie has recently realized, punishing sleepy students may not always offer the best outcome. In fact, when one of his students dozed off during an English lesson, Syrie did something most educators would never dream of: he let her sleep.
In a now-viral Twitter thread, Syrie explains that Meg, one of his students, was exhausted from her overwhelming agenda, which includes a before-school math course, early morning farm chores, and intense track practice. Noting that his English class is only a slice of her busy schedule, Syrie decided not to take her sleepiness personally and to instead empathize with the teenager.
“I think too often the biggest thing that people forget about high school students is that they are kids,” Syrie tells Upworthy . “They’re kids—kids who are having to grow up way too fast and are having way too much pressure put on them, in and out of school . . . even for our best and brightest, that pressure gets to be too much.”
While her nap caused her to miss an in-class essay, Syrie explains that Meg ended up emailing it to him that evening—an unprompted move that has made him proud to have trusted both his own instincts and the integrity of his student. “I can’t control the world outside,” he explains. “But I can give her a break. She was not being rude or disrespectful yesterday when she nodded off. She was tired. So I gave her a break. I can do that. And I want to believe, I have to believe—else my life is a lie, that it will come back in the end. And it did. Meg got her esasy done.”
When he noticed one of his students was falling asleep in class, high school English teacher Monte Syrie decided to let her sleep. He explains why on Twitter:
Meg fell asleep in class yesterday. I let her. I didn’t take it personally. She has zero-hour math, farm-girl chores, state-qualifying 4X400 fatigue, adolescent angst, and various other things to deal with. My class is only a part of her life, not her life. No, she did not use
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
her time wisely in class yesterday. She didn’t get her essay turned in. She knew that. I knew that, but I didn’t beat her up about it. Didn’t have to. She emailed it to me last night at 9:00 PM. On her own. I know we all somewhat subscribe to this notion that there’s a right way
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
of doing things, and letting kids sleep in class falls outside the boundaries. I get it, and I’m not suggesting that we make it a permanent part of repertoire /routine, but I am suggesting that we sometimes trust our instincts, even if it goes against the grain, maybe especially
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
if it goes against the grain, for I am not always convinced the grain best considers kids. In a different room, Meg may have been written up for sleeping in class and given a zero for a missing essay, but she wasn’t in a different room; she was in my room. My room.
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
And in my room there are lots of things I CAN do. I can’t control the world outside. I can’t offer Meg a math class later in the day. I cannot feed her horses (many horses) in the morning or evening. I cannot run 6 race-pace 300’s for her. I cannot spirit away her teen trouble.
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
But I can give her a break. She was not being rude or disrespectful yesterday when she nodded off. She was tired. So I gave her a break. I can do that. And I want to believe, I have to believe–else my life is a lie, that it will come back in the end. And it did. Meg got her
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
essay done. In fact, serendipitously, she proudly told me so when I ran into her at the grocery store at 6:45 this morning. She was getting some breakfast before her 7:10 math class. She’d been up since 5:00 doing chores. #myroom #project180
— Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie) May 16, 2018
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