HEATHER
MIGDON
Diary #3
A
Troublesome Child Shines in a New Light
We're supposed to love all our children, and of course I do...most of the time. But what about that one child who is exceedingly difficult to love?
All of your problems, it seems, would immediately vanish if you just didn't have him to worry about. Naturally, since that troublesome child has flawless attendance, you never get to test your theory that the class would flow so much more smoothly without him there.
For me, that child is Brandon. His social and academic deficiencies make him by far my greatest challenge. He functions at a low third-grade level both in math and in reading, and his sizable frustration with being presented with anything new causes him to have too great a monopoly on my attention. The really fun days, though, are when his mother forgets to give him his medication. Brandon has ADHD, and even though I have only taught him for a short time, it only takes a few minutes for me to realize when he has not taken his medication that morning. But even when he is medicated, he continues to be emotionally immature and physically and verbally abusive to his peers. Indeed, even worse than my irritation with him is the disdain his classmates have for him. While they are not always innocent themselves, they understandably dislike Brandon's hitting them with paper balls from across the room and his snide remarks as he passes them to go to the pencil sharpener or trashcan. All day, I am assaulted with a constant chorus of "Brandon hit me!" "Brandon saidŠto me!" "You better GET him Ms. Migdon!"Brandon's surprising gift
Faced with a severely unpopular child who usually fails to respond to any of my standard consequences, frustration had led me to sometimes be a bit more dismissive of him and his needs than I should be. But knowing that he is my student and for better or worse, we are "stuck" with each other – I have dedicated myself to developing a relationship with him.
One day, when I asked him what his interests were, he replied that he enjoyed writing poetry. Needless to say, I was stunned. None of my children, even those three to four grade levels above him, write poetry as a hobby. When I expressed an interest in his poetry, he ran to his desk to retrieve a notebook in which he kept his poems. As I read through them, I actually had to wonder if some of them were really products of his imagination or copied from a book. After discussing his poems with him for just a little while, it became clear that these poems were indeed his original works. His excitement and delight in sharing his poems made me wonder when and if he had ever had an audience. I let him know that he clearly had a gift. He responded by writing something on the next sheet in his notebook. He wrote: These people are smart.These people are caring and nice.
These people are good listeners.
These people are wonderful people.
These people are teachers. I'm not sure whether it was the content of his short poem or the speed with which it was created, but I immediately saw Brandon in a different light. Perhaps he had intelligences that were immeasurable on a standardized test. Perhaps he had more ease expressing himself in writing than with speech.
I have not looked at Brandon in quite the same way since I read that poem a few days ago. I'm even considering having Brandon read some of his poems to the rest of class in order to alleviate some of the tension between him and his classmates.
If nothing else, Brandon had shown me that when I think I might know all there is to know about a student, I still might need to look a bit closer.
Read next week's diary
