Blog Post 5

 In college, we’re always discussing how education shapes us, but reading "Troublemakers" by Carla Shalaby made me rethink what that actually means, especially for kids who don’t fit into the “good student” mold. Shalaby’s book focuses on four young students labeled as “troublemakers” and shows how schools handle or mishandle kids who don’t conform. As a college student, this book hit home for me because it challenges the ideas of what education is really supposed to be about.

The kids Shalaby follows Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus are all seen as disruptive, but what stands out is how the system doesn’t ask why they act out. It’s almost like the label of “troublemaker” is given to them without trying to understand what’s going on. Instead of seeing these kids as whole people with emotions and experiences, they’re seen as problems that need to be fixed or controlled.

Reading this made me think back to elementary school, and I could definitely see how this label impacts someone’s entire educational experience. If you’re called a troublemaker early on, it sticks. People start expecting less from you, or worse, expecting you to fail.

I think the biggest takeaway for me was how important it is to change the narrative around “troublemakers.” Instead of seeing these kids as problems, we should see them as kids who are communicating something that schools need to hear. Maybe it’s that the work isn’t engaging. Maybe it’s that they’re dealing with stuff at home. Whatever it is, their behavior is saying something, and we need to listen.

This book made me realize that the idea of "troublemaking" is subjective. What’s disruptive in one classroom might not be in another. It depends on how the teacher interacts with the student and the environment they create. A teacher who focuses on building relationships and understanding their students will have a different classroom than one who focuses strictly on control.