In recent weeks at my part time job at a local learning center I was told that a mother of a young special needs student requested that I be the only instructor to work with her son from now on. I would like to attribute her request to the fact that I'm such a great instructor and that I work well with student's that have special needs, but unfortunately I think I was just a victim of circumstance and luck. The young man is around 7 years old and has Down's Syndrome. He is rather notorious at the learning center for being difficult to deal with, and very few other instructors ever even have the chance to teach this student anything because his behavior is so erratic.
Since I do not typically work with students of his age or course of study (beginning reader) I never had to work with this particular student, but had witnessed the chaos he often created each Saturday morning. Well...it so happens that about a month ago I went into work on a Saturday morning to find that this student had been assigned to my table. Even though I had never been trained in beginner reading instruction I was told that basically the decision makers had decided to see how he would work with me since everyone else had been largely unsuccessful in dealing with him and his behaviors. That's right...I was the LAST option!
As the student entered that Saturday morning all eyes were on my table anxious to witness the disaster that was sure to ensue. Amazingly, the anticipated disaster never occurred. As most educators quickly realize, many students react to and behave differently for different teachers. On this particular day the student was a complete joy. He read books to me, he wrote, he did math, he remained seated, and his overall behavior was impeccably perfect. Everyone, including me, was pleasantly surprised at how well the student did. The information was shared with his mother, and of course she requested that he only work with me from now on. The next two weeks were a repeat performance of his spectacular debut with me...and then yesterday happened.
The first fifteen minutes of the instructional hour began as the others had. The student was well behaved and completed his work, and then came the chaos. The remainder of the hour was mostly a blur of objects being thrown, screaming, and yours truly being made very uncomfortable. I'm still clueless as to what set this kid off, but before I even had time to really react the student had left his seat, walked around the table to where I was seated, opened my cabinet drawer, and began throwing transparencies all over the place. Momentarily I was fixated on the absolute joy expressed in his young face as he gleefully threw the objects, and it left me speechless. I could only watch as he tossed transparencies with overwhelming joy. Soon enough I had regained my composure and was able to get him to stop. Not more than 10 seconds after I had stopped that throwing fit, he seemed to see all the materials on the table that he had been working on for the first time. As you have probably guessed he began throwing all of those things off the front of the table. With the much needed aid of a co-worker we were able to get the student seated again and back to work...at least for a very brief time. Not too long after that I was beraded with a chorus of "NO'S!!" everytime I asked him to complete a task. The volume and intensity of his refusals grew with each of my demands.
Some time around this point I vaguely remember wondering if I would be fired if I just got up, clocked out, and left the building. In the end I decided to stay since there was only about 10 minutes left in the instructional hour, and I figured what can really go wrong in 10 minutes. As it turns out...a lot. Once again with 'ninja like' quickness the student had left his seat and was standing beside me. Trying to make the best of the situation I said something like, "OK...you can stand here if you want, but we have to do some work." To this the student replied, "NOOOO!!" The next thing that happened completely threw me for a loop. The student, while he was already attempting to do this, says to me, "Let me sit in your lap." As anyone who knows me will tell you I'm not the touchy-feely type, and my initial impulse was to pick the kid up and throw him across the room. Instead I finally got my turn to say, "NOOOOOO!!!" Not one to easily take no for an answer the student spent the last 5 minutes of the instructional hour trying unsuccessfully to sit in my lap. I wish I had video footage that I could attach to this blog so everyone could see the 'trying to climb in your lap/me continually moving out of the way' dance that occurred between the two of us. It was a very uncomfortable hour in my life, but my hope is that my loyal readers will get a chuckle from this story. Patience is indeed a virtue!!!
