One of the many shortened forms or acronmys of the public education system. My new students are reminding me of many of the joys of this job.

Irony first...I was walking in the cafeteria yesterday and saw this very tall man hugging his pre-k son goodbye. I looked at him and then looked again. It was a former student of mine. I probably taught him the 2nd or 3rd year of my teaching career. He was one of the group of students that first introduced me to antidepressants! (This was also the year I had the student who would try to take his clothes off and then hide under my skirt if I was wearing one. Needless to say I only wore one once while he was in my class!) I've always said I would rather deal with a student who tries to hit me than one who passively refuses to do anything. This one could sit and do nothing with the best of them! This was back when I thought I actually had control of someone else...I could try and hold his hand with the pencil-useless. I could try and bribe him with positives-nothing "spoke" to him. What he wanted was his mom's attention and the way to get that was by failing school by doing nothing. By the end of the year we were assigning him 10 math problems and if he would do 1 and get it right that was a 100. I don't know if he has recognized me or not but at this point I haven't worked up to speaking to him.

One of my new ones is a very intelligent, street-smart young man. Mom and Dad both have an extensive drug past and he lives with a grandmother. I think Dad has tried to straighten up his life but mom is working the streets and only comes home when she can't make enough to support her habit. Using one of his favorite words...his life "sucks!" (We are working on using a different word in the school environment but no luck yet!) He picks on the other kids I work with. I work really hard to make the kids feel safe in school. I think everyone should have at least one place they feel safe and I want one of their places to be at school. So he and I talked about that today. He thinks he's doing them a favor. He figures life is going to throw people in your life who pick on you, beat you up, etc. You have to learn to either stand up to them or let them see you cry. There's definitely no thought of turning the other cheek.

It made me think about M. She really hasn't had a point in life where anyone picks on her. I'm not sure what she would do if they did. I would like to hope she is secure enough in who she is that she's able to walk away from it. I'm glad though that as of 2nd grade she hasn't learned this lesson yet. I hope we have a lot longer to go.