Glory's School of Hard Knocks

Being a teacher I expected my own children to be the best behaved students at school, and for the most part they were. But now I was dealing with a new situation, children who were not mine, and boy was it an eye-opener!

In the last blog I was explaining influences that caused the children's behavior problems to increase. Believe it or not the school was a major contributor. Teachers and staff felt so sorry for Merrym because of her illness and for what the kids had gone through. They tended not to discipline or to go lightly on the discipline. They knew Merrym had no way to get to the school, if the kids were having a problem and they knew I was teaching 15 miles away at another school. The staff overlooked things to the point that Asab and Courtney thought they could do whatever and get away with it, and they were pretty much right.

Courtney would steal pencils or something from other children or even hit them, then she would get down under the table or her desk and wouldn't come out. The teacher could beg, threaten, ignore her, but Courtney would just stay under the table. She was finally found to be ADHD. Courtney also had a speech problem that emphasized the "s" sound. It made her sound like she was hissing. Some kids teased her and she ended up hitting them, which caused another problem. After testing her, they found that she had a learning disiblity and resource class began.

Asab's teacher had a physically disabled wife, who was also in a wheelchair. He really empathized with Merrym. He was an extremely nice man, who was soft spoken. He tried to reason with Asab. Of course this didn't work. If Asab didn't end up in the principal's office every day, we knew he was sick.

The principal was also a soft spoken man, who tried to reason with Asab. It got so bad that Asab would not listen to the principal. When he wanted Asab to go somewhere, the principal would have to physically pick him up and carry him. This was to remove the distraction that Asab was causing from the classroom.

One day Asab told his mom he was sick. She let him stary home. About 11:00 he started acting up and smart-mouthing Merrym in front of the home-health-aide. Obviously he wasn't sick. Merrym called me at school crying. I said, "Don't tell Asab, but I will see you in a few minutes." I got some one to cover my class and drove the 15 miles. I walked in and of course Asab was shocked. I said, "Get your things, you are going to school!" He gathered his things, while trying to argue that he was sick. I got him to school, marched him into the principal's office, and had a talk with him and the principal together. I let the principal know that Asab had lied and had been home sluffing school. I told the principal he needed to be stricter with the kids and gave him my phone number, then said in front of Asab, "If you ever have another problem with Asab or Courtney. I want you to call me, even at work and I will take care of it." Needless to say things got better, but not perfect.

At one point I thought they got a little carried away with the discipline. Asab threw a worm in the girls bathroom, causing a big commotion. Merrym and I got phone calls to let us know what had happened and how they were dealing with the problem. Asab was to stay in from recess for a week and help clean the cafeteria after lunch. In my opinion that was a little overboard for a worm, when he got away with many other things that could have caused damage to other children, the building or himself. It was hard to find a happy medium when punishing Asab.

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his town.

Deuteronomy 21:18 & 19

Love Mother Hen Glory