Tough day for Pete. His teacher allowed him return to his work-study job. I bumped into him as he was walking off campus with his class. We exchanged a high five. He did not attend last week because of his behavior. We talked about it all everyday, Pete really wanted to attend this week.
A little later in the hour, I received a call from Pete’s teacher and she informed me that he was sent back to campus from his job. According to his teacher, he started his cartoon scripts as soon as he started work. She said she wanted to give him a chance but she could not have him laughing and repeating. After the work incident Pete was to attend my class.
Needless-to-say he was persistent about his self-soothing (his cartoon phrasing) and it took a while to try and reconnect with him. Staff was short today and many students needed extra help. I did my best. Pete did not shout out in my class today. He did say his cartoon phrase to himself a few times while I was trying to talk to him. Each time I asked for his attention he gave it to me and he took my direction.
The struggle of transition before a break in school is typical. This is often the story with students that struggle. The students crave the structured environment of school. Structure is safe and unstructured time and activity is unpredictable. I suppose Pete deep down knew he would be spending many hours with the television, no phone calls to friends or contact with others. I hope I am wrong.
I’ll send him a postcard or two to let him know he is not alone.
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