One year, the superintendent’s daughter was in my kindergarten class. Talk about pressure!! As with every class, I had shared personal things as they came up in class. For example, I told the class that I had grown up on a farm.
Fall Parent-Teacher Conference time rolled around and it was time for “Tina’s” conference. He mom, our superintendent came in. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was wondering what kinds of questions she would have about how I teach the curriculum and what my philosophy on disciple was. I should not have been worried. She came in, all professional-looking and intimidating as hell! She sat down in the little kindergarten chair and said, “Before we talk about my daughter, I just have one question: were you really born in a barn?” “Tina had taken me saying, “I grew up on a farm,” as “I was born in a barn.” We had a good laugh over it and her conference continued without a hitch!
Same classroom: “Jerry” was prone to breakdowns if he felt embarrassed or frustrated. He wasn’t very good at controlling his emotions. One day, he was frustrated with adding numbers. He literally melted out of his chair and started flopping around on the floor. In one of my less professional moments, I said, “Jerry! Stop flopping around like a fish out of water!” My little friend, “Tina” (the superintendent’s daughter, started cracking up! I thought, “Oh, great! She’s going to go home and tell her mom I called a student a fish out of water!” I apologized to “Jerry” and the class, telling them I shouldn’t have said that. “Tina” said, “But Mrs. Jenkins! It’s true! I go fishing with my grandpa all the time and that’s exactly what they look like!” Oh, boy!!
And then there was “Lee.” “Lee’s” dad was a high school teacher at a local Christian school. His mom was a secretary there. His older sister attended the Christian school. “Lee,” however, could not. He had been in preschool there and had a behavior problem. The head of the school told the family that he was not welcome to attend kindergarten there. And boy, was he!
After the school year was underway, we had a meeting with the family. In attendance were both parents, the principal, the guidance counselor, an interventionist, and myself. We asked Dad what happened when “Lee” misbehaved in preschool. Get this: He told us they would call him, he would take “Lee” to the wresting room, and spank him. Say what?? We told him that this is public school and we wouldn’t be doing that.
I mean, here’s a kid, whose entire family is going to a school that he’s not allowed to go to, his therapist is out on maternity leave, and his meds hadn’t been refilled because he wasn’t going to therapy. All the odds were against him!
The principal (she’s no longer a principal) told me to stand him outside the classroom when he was disruptive. He was a runner and the school was just a block off Main Street. I said I wasn’t comfortable with that. Then she told me to give him a desk by himself with tape around it and he could move all he wanted within that area. He would be defiant and step outside those boundaries all the time. He would crawl on countertops and rip things off the wall and growl.
His family got him back into therapy. He would have breakfast in my classroom. We discovered that he loved Legos. If he had a good morning, he could have lunch with the counselor and play with Legos in her office. He had someone come and spend the afternoon with him from The Guidance Center.
At the end of kindergarten, the family decided to move out of state to be closer to family. They came back to visit. Who did “Lee” want to see? Me!! He told me, on that visit, “Mrs. Jenkins. You loved me when I didn’t deserve it.” That’s why we do this, friends! To make a difference!
No comments:
Post a Comment