There was another meeting today to plan for the student who my partner teacher has renamed "he who will not be named" just because it becomes exhausting to talk about him ad nauseam. We both have done quite well at keeping things in perspective the past couple weeks. He is given what he needs to make choices about his day and the other students get the best of what we have to offer. But the question still remains, "What now?" What is the plan for the remainder of the year, summer school and placement for next year. I walked out today with the feeling that there is just no good ending here. Retention will do nothing for a change in his attitude. Moving on to 7th grade will simply be more of the same. The other possibilities are that his parents will move him to another school - that would make #7, he'll turn to the dark side or he'll stop coming to school. None of these accomplish our goal. The piece I just can't let go of is that he was told he would not go on to 7th grade unless he turned it around. How does a promotion get communicated to him without him thinking that he has accomplished what he set out to do - absolutely nothing. My words mean everything to me. I don't speak any that I don't mean. I am only grateful that I didn't put the original deal on the table all those months ago.
Yes, middle school is really different. There just aren't many options available to kids who choose not to come to the table. There is no placement other than the regular program until after 8th grade. So the only choice is to fail, go to summer school, fail there and then fail again next year. I'm still not sure about this but it feels like one of those times that I just need to let it go.
No comments:
Post a Comment