The Girl in the Dark
Life with children is bittersweet. Yesterday, I boiled over at a couple of students. Lesson learned, but I’m glad it wasn’t too terrible. I spoke too harshly with a girl named BD because she spoke out of turn when the class was trying to organize to get to lunch. I had a power struggle with a girl named NI. She panicked about losing something, and I told her where to sit, and she refused. Her refusal made me too angry. I was able to mend both situations by sleeping on it last night and then apologizing to each of them today. It’s possible that they don’t often have adults apologize to them, and they accepted it readily. A boy named PH, who has no friends, asked me if there is a way to make friends. I gave him the best advice I could which is to tell someone about things you like and ask them about what they like. I’ll check in on him and make sure he knows how to articulate things like this. I notice his enunciation is very poor, and I have trouble understanding him. This year’s ...