tomorrow's speech
1:27 a.m. - 2003-11-07
I thought about putting this in unsentletter, but I think I'll put it here. That's because it won't be unsent. This is exactly what I will say tomorrow to one of my students:
From now on when I speak with you, I will have at least one witness present. During class this will have to be a student. This is because you have told your mother that I pick on you and call you names. I have taught school for 11 years. I have not gotten this far by calling children names or picking on them. I have gone over and over in my head as to why or how I would have called you any kind of name. First of all, I don�t really use the terms that you told your mother I called you (she couldn't remember if it was 'crazy girl' or 'silly girl'). Second of all, I would only call someone a name because I felt like we had a rapport. Do you know what rapport is? That is when you feel comfortable enough with someone to joke around. I would only say things like that in a joking atmosphere, and not when I am correcting or scolding a student. I do not do things maliciously. Do you know what malicious means? It means doing something on purpose to hurt someone. I understand now that you and I do not have that relationship. We do not have a rapport. Is that clear?
Okay the bottom line is that you spend my class throwing away paper and starting over. This is after I have clearly stated that writing is a process and nothing is to be thrown away. This is after I have even made you retrieve things that you have thrown away out of the trash and tape it back together. I was a little confused yesterday when I showed your mother your journal. All the messy, sloppy stuff was gone. There was very little work in the journal. All the work that you put into that diamante was gone. The whole process leading up to where I took the words and wrote into a diamante has vanished. What it looks like now is that I opened your journal, wrote a diamante and then told you to write what I had written. This is after 4 days of sweat and tears.
So let me have your journal. I am numbering every blank piece of paper in this notebook. If there are any pages missing after today, I will sign you behavior folder. There is no more throwing away and starting over for the rest of the year. Do you understand? Do you have any questions?
Now, I would really like to hear how you feel I am picking on you. I would like to know under what circumstances I called you names. Really. Tell me. Because it may be time for me to find another career.