Thursday, March 09, 2006

Guess there is such a thing as a snowball's chance in ....

The darndest thing happened today. I gave a student detention earlier this week, to be served today. It has been my experience that when "commanded" to appear for afterschool detention, this student is nowhere to be found. I reminded him yesterday and he said he remembered, but the moment of truth was to occur at 2:13pm today. I called him over to my class at 1 min before the bell and said, OK, Moses, have a seat. "I have to tell my brother I have detention!" was his reply.

"Alright then; go to the office and call him."

"But he picks me up."

I sigh and say (thinking, it can't be this hard, can it??)"OK, go to the front of the school and let him know. Be back in...say...5 minutes."

"5 minutes!" Moses gasped, "He doesn't get here until 3!" This is said with a bit of negativity towards me and my lack of understanding of his life.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Moses," I say, forcing myself to remain calm (I teach in a loving way...I teach in a loving way), "your detention will be over by 3."

He blinked, said, "Oh," and that was that. He was great, did everything I asked (my detentions include cleaning the counters/desks/whiteboard). And we even got him caught up on some classwork. I asked if his brother always picked him up ("yeah") and he asked if he could, sometimes, maybe, stay afterschool to make up work ("Why, sure."). Sheesh! I can't believe it took me 6 months to discover that he had no clue. And that I had no clue either, it seems! Obviously, I had to share this with his tech teacher who's jaw dropped as far as mine did when I realized what this meant. Oh, well. Now we've got him for this last trimester right where we want him!

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