I cannot precisely remember...

I am not certain what the precise name of the book by Judith Viorst was that was such a hit with the younger set. Something along the lines of the "Alexander's Very Bad, Horrible, No Good Day", I think. I just had one myself. It was in a kindergarten classroom. I should have stayed home and puttered around all day. It would have been much more productive, and far less stressful.

I took the job last night, when my phone rang about 9:00, thinking: how bad can a day in a class with a couple of dozen five year olds be? Obviously Not remembering how bad the first one was,back in August. And for the most part, they were pretty good kids. Then there is the minor-ist part of one kid who was unbelievable. How one little skinny five year old can be so distracting, disruptive, demanding, disconcerting, and crazy-making is hard to grasp. I was right there as a witness to the entire scene, and I still can't figure out just what happened. Amazing: that the teacher has any hair left.

It's hard to know what to do: some of the experts say to ignore undesirable behavior, don't give them even a glance to let them know you are noticing the acting out. That giving them your attention, deliberately 'noticing' the acting out - just want they want when they are so blatantly misbehaving. But it is so obviously unacceptable, the other kids cannot help but be entranced, or possibly stunned that such abberant, intolerable, uncontrolled stuff is going on right there in front of them. Or you, as the teacher, can focus all your attention, every minute of the school day, on trying to get this out of control individual to bend to fit in the plan, mold into the same behavior as all the others - whereupon you don't have any time at all to actually teach the ones that are malleable, teachable and ready to learn. So the 'nintey-nine' sheep that had not gone astray will continue to be neglected, all falling farther behind, and the consequences of not getting the lessons done are obvious when it is time for the testing to be done to evaluate achievement. So the arbitrary scores by which instruction is gauged make the teacher, principal, school appear inept when compared with others.

This individual was such a wide-spread source of chaos, the only way anyone in that room could have possibly absorbed any of the lessons, would have been to devote one adults' undivided attention to this problematic child. And what was so strange: it was so bad, the teacher called his mom, who came in and sat with him for a couple of hours - he was the picture of Mr. Well-behaved. Otherwise: he was spring-loaded. Could not sit down, or keep his mouth closed. Unbelievably disruptive. So, by ten o'clock, I was saying: 'Thank you, God. I get to go home at 2:45.' And so very thankful to have the ones God gave me: raised, on their own, giving the appearance of being perfectly capable, normal, fully functioning adults. Thankyouverymuch.