That's all I have left! And every day closer to the end I get, the harder it gets to get there the next day! Goodness.
Today, A. came back to school. He tried to come back yesterday, but the office staff didn't allow him back until his mother had contacted the principal because just last week we had a transfer of records request from the town he lived in before he moved here in the last week of January. Apparently, that conversation happened.
This is a kid who is court ordered to attend school. Before he was court ordered to attend school, he was absent almost 50 % of the time. After the order he came for two days in a row before he missed again. Then he came in all in a rage because the police had taken his mother to jail the night before. Apparently, when she took him to court, they realized that she'd failed to appear on a different charge of her own.
Today, he was back, but he was late so I was already in class. Whoever brought him apparently just dropped him off. He walked into the school office and just announced that his dad was in jail. Apparently, the police took his dad from his home last night.
The counselor brought him to class, the both of them almost in tears. This is the kid that I fought so long to get new shoes for, as his were rancid nasty and split open down the sides. I had to go to his house once to get some papers signed. It took forever to find the place because it's not a residence, it's a trashed out, half burnt out, storefront shop in old down town. His mother is obviously cracked out.
He's 10 years old, can't read a lick, and has none of the social skills needed to attend school, which is why he's in my class.
Usually, the other teachers and administrators make fun of me for caring about my students and trying to sort them out as well as I can, but today the counselor looked at me and said that she just didn't know how I'd dealt with all this stuff all year long. Honestly, I don't know how I've done it, either.
But these are simply not kids who can be taught in a regular classroom. I need to try to advocate for them, to try to sort them out as much as possible, because they are the people with whom I live forty hours a week, all in one small room, all day long. I don't even get lunch or a planning period as a break. I need them to be as well sorted out as possible! It's not just what's right for them, but for me, and by extension, for my own son who has to live with his stressed out mommy when he comes home from school.
Q. still hasn't come back and won't. He's in Chicago, but there has been no request for records transfer. He's just not going to go to school any more this year, and maybe not next year, either. They took him away to avoid taking him to court--because they were about to get caught in a bunch of their own mess. At least nine other kids still in the home and no parents.
Lord, Have Mercy. Six more day.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
For Iris
The one person in the world who reads this crap.
Whew! Looking back at the older posts, I'm really amazed that I've survived this year. There are three more weeks of school left for me. (I am leaving a week early to have a chance to visit my mom.)
I am STILL amazed and incensed by how people live here. The boy with the cigarette burns? His mother brought charges against him that were somehow related to some sort of joy ride that left the kid driving back alone, and totaling the car when he hit the gas instead of the break trying to avoid a pedestrian. He did avoid the pedestrian, and he was okay. But the mother brought the charges against the kids to protect her self and several other adults involved in whatever it was that actually happened. And then . . .
Before they brought him up on those charges, his mom threw out her husband (his step dad) when his natural father got out of prison in Chicago on sex offender charges. Yep, the sex offender was living in the home with this kid and nine other siblings. And when the court date rolled around last week, he didn't show up. They took him to Chicago with them. And the freaking police department knew the sex offender was in the home--cause I told them!
They argued with me, and condescended to me, but called me back later to tell me that I was right. And still did nothing.
And the kid was so worried about being taken to Chicago; he talked about it all the time. I feel really upset that he's not here now. But he's gone. And I am too, almost.
Another kid, a ten year old who can't read a word and is not retarded at all, lives in a half destroyed, trashed out store front in the old main part of town. He smells horribly, but after going to his house, I understand why. The entire place smells that way. His mom is cracked out. He cooks his own breakfast, if he eats. We bought him clothes because he was wearing the most pitiful things you can think of. He misses school almost half the time. He had to write and illustrate a sentence with the word "friend" and he wrote, "Friends always make love." That's also what he illustrated. Poor, poor kid. He has absolutely NO idea how to learn. He lacks even the social skills involved in school attendance.
Currently, the biggest thing is my schizophrenic student who keeps masturbating in class.
And the little princess diva who always gets what she wants. She STRUCK me in class the other day. When I insisted that she be removed from my classroom, they had to call the police because she refused to move--and the cop was trying to handcuff her by the time she decided to get up! Of course, her parents don't answer the phone anymore.
And the principal didn't even suspend her!! That part really pisses me off. One, because it's insulting to me, but even more so because it's not what's best for the girl. Her entire problem is that no one ever disciplines her. Every time she's sent home, she gets to go buy things she likes--because her family doesn't want to listen to her fits. Her honest future plans are to drop out of school as soon as possible and have babies.
Three more weeks. Just three more . . .
And that also means that I have just three weeks to get rid of damn near everything I own. This is so overwhelming! I'm planning to be in Taiwan on June 10. I've got get rid of almost all our possessions, meager as they are. I really wish I could keep my books. I'm going to look into mailing them, but I'm afraid that's going to terribly expensive.
And I have a few things that I just don't want to get rid of, and my treasure chest that I usually leave over here with some friends. Maybe I'll still leave it with them, if they'll agree to keep it again. Then I could take it with at a different time, after a visit.
I'm both excited and worried about returning to Taiwan. I worry that once my boy has learned Mandarin, he'll feel like he's a part of something so much larger than I am, and I'll seem so irrelevant and dumb to him. This means I'm going to have to 1, study with him very seriously, and 2, keep him in English schools as long as possible.
Well, that's it now. All updated. My ridiculous ramblings about a place on the delta--like living on Mars. Please, God, grant me some peace for a while. I need a rest.
Whew! Looking back at the older posts, I'm really amazed that I've survived this year. There are three more weeks of school left for me. (I am leaving a week early to have a chance to visit my mom.)
I am STILL amazed and incensed by how people live here. The boy with the cigarette burns? His mother brought charges against him that were somehow related to some sort of joy ride that left the kid driving back alone, and totaling the car when he hit the gas instead of the break trying to avoid a pedestrian. He did avoid the pedestrian, and he was okay. But the mother brought the charges against the kids to protect her self and several other adults involved in whatever it was that actually happened. And then . . .
Before they brought him up on those charges, his mom threw out her husband (his step dad) when his natural father got out of prison in Chicago on sex offender charges. Yep, the sex offender was living in the home with this kid and nine other siblings. And when the court date rolled around last week, he didn't show up. They took him to Chicago with them. And the freaking police department knew the sex offender was in the home--cause I told them!
They argued with me, and condescended to me, but called me back later to tell me that I was right. And still did nothing.
And the kid was so worried about being taken to Chicago; he talked about it all the time. I feel really upset that he's not here now. But he's gone. And I am too, almost.
Another kid, a ten year old who can't read a word and is not retarded at all, lives in a half destroyed, trashed out store front in the old main part of town. He smells horribly, but after going to his house, I understand why. The entire place smells that way. His mom is cracked out. He cooks his own breakfast, if he eats. We bought him clothes because he was wearing the most pitiful things you can think of. He misses school almost half the time. He had to write and illustrate a sentence with the word "friend" and he wrote, "Friends always make love." That's also what he illustrated. Poor, poor kid. He has absolutely NO idea how to learn. He lacks even the social skills involved in school attendance.
Currently, the biggest thing is my schizophrenic student who keeps masturbating in class.
And the little princess diva who always gets what she wants. She STRUCK me in class the other day. When I insisted that she be removed from my classroom, they had to call the police because she refused to move--and the cop was trying to handcuff her by the time she decided to get up! Of course, her parents don't answer the phone anymore.
And the principal didn't even suspend her!! That part really pisses me off. One, because it's insulting to me, but even more so because it's not what's best for the girl. Her entire problem is that no one ever disciplines her. Every time she's sent home, she gets to go buy things she likes--because her family doesn't want to listen to her fits. Her honest future plans are to drop out of school as soon as possible and have babies.
Three more weeks. Just three more . . .
And that also means that I have just three weeks to get rid of damn near everything I own. This is so overwhelming! I'm planning to be in Taiwan on June 10. I've got get rid of almost all our possessions, meager as they are. I really wish I could keep my books. I'm going to look into mailing them, but I'm afraid that's going to terribly expensive.
And I have a few things that I just don't want to get rid of, and my treasure chest that I usually leave over here with some friends. Maybe I'll still leave it with them, if they'll agree to keep it again. Then I could take it with at a different time, after a visit.
I'm both excited and worried about returning to Taiwan. I worry that once my boy has learned Mandarin, he'll feel like he's a part of something so much larger than I am, and I'll seem so irrelevant and dumb to him. This means I'm going to have to 1, study with him very seriously, and 2, keep him in English schools as long as possible.
Well, that's it now. All updated. My ridiculous ramblings about a place on the delta--like living on Mars. Please, God, grant me some peace for a while. I need a rest.
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