Just Another Day...

My plan this week was to start anew. I put on a cute skirt set this morning and decided that I would forget all that has happened here at PS 3701 and beginning a new week with my kids. The day was starting of great. I just learned that the school is giving the teacher $250 to use in their classrooms. I have already made a list of the things I will get. By the end of the week my class will be overrun with crayons, pencils...The works. I will never have to ask these raggedy ass parents for anything. WHAT A GREAT DAY!!

AND THEN...

I have a new, new student in my class. The boy is goofy. Now Mr. Goofy has been in this room about a week, and for the most part he does good work. I should be able to deal with goofy if your work is ok. For whatever reason today, I can't even remember why, I asked him how old he was. He said 9.

NINE!!! Whatdaphuck!

I checked his attendace card and sure enough this child was born in 1997! So, off to the office I go to ask them why this child is still in first grade and on the upside, see what I can do to rid my class of one of the demons. "He was retained Ms. Green", was the response. "Well, hell, I can figure that part out!", I said. So after a lengthy back and forth it was determined that he was in first grade, failed, but in the second go 'round only showed up to school for the first 9 weeks. Folk here became outraged! "We will send the social workers to his home and see what happened!" Man, they possed up like Matt Dillion on Gunsmoke.


I just talked to the kid. I figured I would get the most honest answer from him.


The sad thing working here is that you never know just what is going on in these kids lives. Many of them have lived much more "life" than I have. They have experienced things that I have been blessed to have never had to undergo: homelessness, death, being hungry, or just someone who plain just does not want them. I even had one student last year that was "posing' for pictures for her mother's boyfriend. What scares me is how freely they can talk about it. It is is like talking to an adult. Then suddenly you really look at the person you are talking to and realize they are only 6...or in this case 9. After talking with Mr. Goofy I learned that he and his mom and siblings were kicked out of there home, and moved into a hotel. He became sick and since they did not have any money, he stayed at home (the hotel) with his mom. How sad not be able to take your child to the hospital when he is sick. My heart went out to his mother. I am sure that at some point, I am going to be hot, mad, and upset with her this year... but right now I think of all she had to go through last year. Maybe he is not so goofy after all...maybe he is just glad to be around some children. Maybe he is just happy to be in school. HMM?