In episode five, Tony struggles with caring for his students. He cares very deeply about his students, as we have seen throughout the show. And he desperately wants them to know that he cares. But the problem is that Tony goes about his caring in the wrong way.
1. He tries to be their friend. One student who reminds Tony of himself at that age (and we have learned that Tony was a real troublemaker in school at that age, and that he made a lot of mistakes at that time in his life) is a boy named Matt. Tony has been trying to bond with Matt over boxing – he has been giving him and a few other boys boxing lessons, and he has shown particular interest in Matt’s boxing. Matt clearly has some talent for boxing and is interested in getting better at it. The problem is that Tony has approached this boxing bonding as a friend-to-friend interaction. He hasn’t made it clear to Matt that the boxing lessons have to do with boxing as a sport, not with developing skills that he can use in fights or altercations. When Matt ends up in a fight at school, we can’t help but wonder along with Tony’s instructional coach, David, whether Matt is confused about Tony’s boxing lessons and their purpose. Tony says that, in his own life, when he learned how to box, he learned how to control his temper and aggression and not use boxing in altercations. But he hasn’t done a good enough job of teaching that to Matt, because he is interested in being Matt’s friend, not Matt’s teacher.
2. He talks instead of listening. Caring about your students means listening to them. When another of Tony’s students ends up in trouble that has to do with the fact that his Ipod was stolen, Tony asks the student why he didn’t come to Tony about that situation. In fact, the student did go to Tony. He tells him that he did, and we see the footage of him doing so – telling Tony that his Ipod was stolen. Tony didn’t listen to this student. If he had listened better, he could have helped him as a teacher, and perhaps the bad situation that developed would have been avoided. Once again, Tony needs to learn to talk less and listen more.
Tony does genuinely care for his students. His struggle right now is to figure out how to care for them as a teacher, and not as a friend.
