[Miscellany]

Teaching the whole school means that I am up against *all* the good kids and *all* the bad kids. Now, some people (let's call them hippies) say that there is no such thing as a good or bad kid, just good or bad situations. Yeayeayea, trust me there are some doozies out there that you have no idea about, tree hugger.

Take JB for instance. He has every teacher in the school afraid to do yard duty and there are girls who cry when they see him. We had a staff meeting about him the other day.

He is five years old.
yep.

I'm going to come right out and say it that I think there is something seriously wrong with this child. He is either autistic, or aspergers or perhaps even schizophrenic (though I don't know if children that young can have it) - I also suggested to his teacher that he may be chanelling satan and that we should forego the assessment and just get the priest in. I'm sure my mother could get someone on the phone in about 10 minutes. The problem is, that his parents deny anything is wrong with their child.

I don't know about you, but if my kid was err...different I'd want him assessed and given the proper care - an aide in class, counselling, therapy, meds - whatever it takes. Wouldn't you? But noooo, not all parents.

JB sings, clicks, talks, yells to himself. He is unable to interact socially with any children. He is unresponsive to teacher and other adult communication. He does not listen/follow instructions/accept punishments. He usually retorts with a yelled and innapropriate response for the situation and he is just.....strange. It took me about 3 seconds of being in his presense to announce he needed an immediate psych assessment, but then I guess I've taught my fair share of kids who needed help, so I know what to look for.

In art the other day he was behaving badly - yelling at children around him, annoying them, refusing to work, scaring the other kids by staring at them etc. So I asked him to gather his things and move across the room to a solo table.

Well..

You'd think I'd asked him to murder his own mother or something. He started screaming and yelling and there was a stand off. Me v JB. I basically stared him down and insisted he come to me immediately until he came. He did so, all the while yelling that he was going to tell his teacher on me (ahah.. I actually laughed when he said this "oh good, we have SO MUCH to talk about") and that he was going to take all my money (another laugh from me). I never actually managed to calm him down completely but he calmed down considerably and before he was allowed to return back to work with the class he stared past me at the window and said (in the voice from that kid from The Shining - this is not a lie!):

"tigger is at the window and he is watching you. He is watching us!"
err, is tigger your.........special friend
"yes - he's looking in the window right now"
*I look behind me at the window..noone there. But he looks to serious about it*
"He is watching all of us to see if we hit eachother and if we do then he will be angry"
okay, well we'll have to be extra good then won't we?
"yes"

I told everyone who would listen this story. I even do the scary Shining voice.
redrum. reeeedruuuuum.

I had yard duty today and when he saw me he ran up and started yelling at me.
WHAT ARE *YOU* DOING HERE?
(gee, kid I ask myself the same fucking question every day)
Then he started yelling about some mean old woman who was a witch and nasty (does he mean me?)

I guess I'm on his shit list too.

posted by M at 11:32 pm 5 comments