Fantasy and Reality, the Harsh Reality

Josie came in at 9:30 tomorrow and refused to say a word. I didn't push her because it looked like she would start crying at any minute. After getting the rest of the class to work on vocabulary, I pulled her aside.

Me: Why were you late this morning?
Josie: ...silence...
Me: I'm not mad, I just want to make sure you are okay. (Josie told the class a few weeks ago that she doesn't like it when her dad hits her mom so I had a few questions on my mind.)
Josie: We were at the laundry store and we were done so we were putting the clothes in the car. Then a robber came and tried to steal everything. And my mom couldn't turn the key to the car and my dad was going to hit the robber and the robber was trying to take my brother (he's in kindergarten).
..and then the tears flowed..

I held her for a while. It's just really disturbing that children so young and so full of energy and love and potential deal with this reality.

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And then there was Edgar. I'll preface this story with the fact that because there were two fourth graders who did not take TCAP bootcamp seriously, they were placed in my classroom instead of going on the epic end of year fieldtrip. Well, they had to eat lunch with my class today, as well. Edgar decided it was a really great idea to for the FIFTH time this year, PICKED UP JOHNNY'S FOOD AND LICKED IT. OH YEAH, THEN HE PUT IT BACK ON JOHNNY'S TRAY. Edgar was banned from the lunch table for the rest of the year by the cafeteria ladies and will be spending lunch at a lonely table.

It seemed only appropriate to speak with his parents about this. I went up to car-riders in an attempt to talk to him while he waited to pick up Edgar. I told the Assistant Principal I was headed over there to talk to the dad so that he could keep watch in case I needed some back up. The dad has a pretty bad reputation for screaming at teachers and going a bit crazy, so I felt like the extra watchful eye would be necessary. Lucky for me, dad was super responsive, I'm just hoping that Edgar wasn't beaten tonight by mom. Note to self: I'm slightly freaked out by how nonchalantly I just wrote that.

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Ending on a positive note. Received an email with this today...

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,

looked in the mirror,

and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.'

So she did and she had a wonderful day.



The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror

and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

'Hmm,' she said, 'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today.'

So she did and she had a grand day.



The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed

that she had only one hair on her head.

'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail.'

So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and

noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.

'YAY!' she exclaimed. 'I don't have to fix my hair today!'


Attitude is everything.