Kaboom.

Oct. 6th, 2009 09:08 pm
arkster: Excited dragon is excited. (Default)
[personal profile] arkster
"Ma'am, he broke my pencil box!!"

"Ma'am, he kicks my water bottle!"

Okay, guys, let's turn it down. Between you and you and the six other rowdy nine-year-olds yelling my name ("Ma'AM!?"), we can hardly pull ourselves together enough to catch what your teacher is writing on the board. Oh, you're all supposed to be copying that down? Right then, between the girls who need to know which notebook to take out and the boy over there who just flicked his pencil off the front of his desk, all it takes is for me to turn around twice before J socks D in the eye with his broken pencil box.

Whoa, now, and D is bawling and it's the teacher's turn to hear out the wailed grievance, the woeful tale of personal belongings mutually violated. Sit down, the both of you, and let's not have any more trouble, and that's all they get so J sits and places his head on his desk once again. Pretty soon it's J who is crying, soft and hidden from the world.

Oh, c'mon, honey, it's not so bad.

"Ma'am, he broke my pencil box."

Yes, kiddo, I know.

"Ma'am, Mum will hit me."


There come these horrible moments of clarity, in the process of adapting to new rules. Suddenly something that was hidden becomes obvious and in retrospect one sees just how badly one missed it.

J's an affectionate kid. He reaches out and touches. Other kids raise their hands- he has to latch onto my arm. He rarely takes pencil to paper, and when he does it's usually to copy somebody else's workbook. We see him with his head down on his desk a lot. Sometimes he'll drop to the desk at a teacher's approach, a passive resistance to the prospect of being called on for an answer.

I wonder how many kids are less obvious.

Date: 2009-10-06 04:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nistelle.livejournal.com
Puts things into perspective.

Man, that's hard.

Date: 2009-10-06 05:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] themis56.livejournal.com
That is very sad. I wish the best for your kids.

I'm sure that having a kind teacher makes things easier for them.

Date: 2009-10-09 04:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arks.livejournal.com
God, I hope so. So many of their teachers really aren't.

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