I teach special education. Some days I am rewarded with students who know the answer, some days I am rewarded when a student comes to school, and some days I find it really hard to be a teacher. Today was one of those days.
I have a student who is 13 and a sixth grader for the second time. She comes from a very dysfunctional home. Her mom is raising three of her own kids plus a grand baby. Her mom probably uses methamphetamine and likes that kind of life-style. My student is very street wise, she dates and is probably sexually active with older men. She probably self medicates with god knows what. She also has a great big giant dread lock on the top of her head, the dread is from about a year of not taking care of her hair (this was not a planned dread). This student has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals but never stays long enough to see any results. When she is at school she tries her best to go home, with faking sickness, faking heavy flow periods, self mutilation, I could go on and on. Let me just say when she is in my class, I let her sleep.
Today, I had the school social worker help me call in a professional to help her get her hair under control. After an hour of working on her hair, a person not familiar with the situation would not be able to tell, but I was very pleased with the results. She was able to free several large clumps of hair from the 'hair-ball'. The professional said she would come back tomorrow and spend the whole afternoon. I am a teacher, I should be teaching nouns verbs, I should be teaching writing, and reading. Instead, I spent an entire afternoon convincing a student that I saw progress on her hair. I do what I can, but after today I can say that I have really seen and heard almost all!
2 comments:
Yep, that's teaching in the 21st century, all right! Who can concentrate on reading and math when they haven't had a decent breakfast, positive attention from a family member, a decent meal? It's a shame that these poor, innocent (and this girl was once innocent, regardless of what she's into now) kids have to go through life in such a lousy way. You made a difference to her today. That's what we do. It may not have been in the traditional academic sense, but it was important nonetheless.
That's the way it is. Reminds me of my last IEP meeting when the "concerned parent" showed up wearng biker chains and clothes with a T-shirt that said F...Off. I did. Err retired that is. :)
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