Non-learning
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The Blame Game
The Player(s) There’s always enough blame to go around, if you’re looking. First-of-the-year issues were just about dealt with. After about 5 weeks of school things seem to settle into routine. Students, who…
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My Responsibility
The Player(s) I watched [the student] like I always did. After a couple of days around the students you teach a teacher’s eye will automatically gravitate to certain students. My eye was always…
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The Sad Reality
It was the usual “fight.” The difference today was the tears. Usually I was met with defiance and some aggression. Today the weapon of choice was tears. I guess when defiance didn’t work,…
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[the student] “Complains” About Me, Too
The Player We had talked. Oh, boy, had we talked. “Your child did this.” “Your child said that.” “I’m concerned about your child’s lack of focus.” “I know how smart your child is,…
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Missing in Action
The school admin paged me to the office. It seemed that [the principal] was missing and, though ostensibly on duty somewhere in the school district, could not be found. By anyone. The Player…
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Ineffectual Bureaucracy
[pronoun] wasn’t even in my elementary school class that year. [pronoun]’s teacher came up to me during one of our fairly frequent passing meetings in the hall. My colleague asked: “Would you take…
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Self-Injury to Avoid Learning
Would [pronoun] really go that far just to avoid learning? The Setup My eyes were drawn to [pronoun], as they generally were. If something were to go wrong in the room, if there…
