Monday, September 26, 2005

Troubled Kid(s)?

We're finishing up our writings, and I was going around the class, and helping out the students who needed the help, when I passed L.O.'s desk. L.O. is a great girl, she's smart, has great friends, gets great marks on her quizzes and tests...and when I passed her desk, she had barely anything written. Keep in mind that most of the class had already written 10 pages at least!!
I asked her what was going on ,and she just kept shrugging her shoulders and saying "I can't!" During the 45 minute writing session, she must have raised her hand 10 times to tell me she had nothing to write. I almost lost my patience with her.
I know that this girl lost her father a while back, but I highly doubt that was her problem. I understood If she had a problem opening up in such a personal writing assignment, but there was so much to write about without having to write about her father. I was assuming she was just taking advantage of her situation. That is easy to do in a school like this.
The principal backs every kid to the fullest. She'd probably been telling all her teachers to go easy on the kid for the past couple of years, and L.O. probably learned to use her situation to the fullest.
I spoke to the principal about her, and I asked her what her opinion on the matter was. She was all for helping her out, but when I told her about the attitude, she said I was right. (!) She said this girl had no excuse to be fresh. When it came to maturity and attitude, there was no compromising. She did say though, that this girl's mother didn't handle the situation very well. It was possible that at this time of the year, with all the Yamim Tovim coming up, the mother might be mentioning the father, and the kid might be having trouble dealing with it.
I had to do something.
Then with R.R., (my L.D. kid,) when her class had writing, she had nothing to write of course, she claims she hates herself, and she doesn't know who she is. I gave her her homework back, and she had done a great job on it. She had written a great story about her history, a surprise birthday party she once had. I told her to put that into her letter to self. She can do a good job, I can see it. Oh, gosh is it my girls who have problems, or me?

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