I stopped, turned around and looked questioningly at the student behind me. "Really Miss, you don't put enough effort into my work." I asked him what exactly he meant and he insisted that his papers are not hanging up on the wall because I didn't put enough effort into it. I smiled, informed him that that wasn't quite the case and then as we talked about it my heart reached out to this kid.
He's a kid who has multiple physical and mental handicaps and the district is insisting on passing through the system without proper support. We are fighting at school to change his placement but there are multiple roadblocks and its been a loooong year trying to get it all worked out. Unfortunately he's able to do little work independently and spends much time just "taking it all in." My heart aches that this guy has such difficulty performing the basic classwork on the lowest levels and that all he wants is the same as any other kid in the school - to be loved and to succeed - for someone to notice him and tell him he's doing a great job!
Pray that I am inspired in new ways to include him and assist him in creating work that can be posted that he will be proud of. It's a difficult line to walk and I struggle with how to best provide appropriate lessons for him. Yet I've realized that including him is what he desires most of all. Pray for patience and for new ways to love this kid - to show him that he's not left behind in a system that wants to pass him through.
Posts
