pigless in VA
Well-Known Member
No, not the surly teens with whom I live. They are more or less on an even keel for now; subject to change at a moment's notice.
I am referring to my charge at work. I will call him Jack out of respect for his privacy. Jack is bright, but he prefers to be in his own world. He enjoys stimming all day, every day. I understand how calming it is for him, so I mostly leave him alone about it. I step in if he is disrupting other students.
The problem is that Jack's father does not grasp that his child has no interest in school work. Jack is capable enough, but lately he is refusing to do anything for me. I mean that in the most literal sense. Jack was moved to a class in which the children are required to take the state standards of learning tests. This means that the teachers have to cover a lot of material rapidly.
Jack CAN learn, but he learns everything slowly. Today, he was supposed to be working on math problems only 2 pages of them. I asked him to complete 4 of them. It took him an hour and a half. I made him miss his social skills class (which he loves) to work on math problems. Before you guys state the obvious and say, "send the work home with him," that won't work. Dad may want his boy in the more strenuous class, but homework rarely returns to us completed.
So, Jack is frustrated because these teachers at school want him to learn a bunch of stuff that he has no interest in and no use for. Now, he is becoming defiant. I ask him to sit, and he refuses. He refuses to do his work. He is getting in my face, pushing me, and shoving my arm. My coworkers have told me that I can force him to go to the conference room and do work all day, but what good will that serve when he will only sit there and happily stimulant all day long?
I am referring to my charge at work. I will call him Jack out of respect for his privacy. Jack is bright, but he prefers to be in his own world. He enjoys stimming all day, every day. I understand how calming it is for him, so I mostly leave him alone about it. I step in if he is disrupting other students.
The problem is that Jack's father does not grasp that his child has no interest in school work. Jack is capable enough, but lately he is refusing to do anything for me. I mean that in the most literal sense. Jack was moved to a class in which the children are required to take the state standards of learning tests. This means that the teachers have to cover a lot of material rapidly.
Jack CAN learn, but he learns everything slowly. Today, he was supposed to be working on math problems only 2 pages of them. I asked him to complete 4 of them. It took him an hour and a half. I made him miss his social skills class (which he loves) to work on math problems. Before you guys state the obvious and say, "send the work home with him," that won't work. Dad may want his boy in the more strenuous class, but homework rarely returns to us completed.
So, Jack is frustrated because these teachers at school want him to learn a bunch of stuff that he has no interest in and no use for. Now, he is becoming defiant. I ask him to sit, and he refuses. He refuses to do his work. He is getting in my face, pushing me, and shoving my arm. My coworkers have told me that I can force him to go to the conference room and do work all day, but what good will that serve when he will only sit there and happily stimulant all day long?