I was a substitute teacher for first and second graders today. They're busy!
It really is a different world. They don't use books. They have worksheets. Lots of worksheets. They use crayons frequently. They're learning things that I thought I always knew.
I never wanted to be one of the people who said, "You know, it's been so long since I learned that...I don't know how to explain it." I am one of those people. You try explaining, to a second or third grader, how to "carry the one" from the ones place to the tens place and you'll find out what I mean.
These kids are very wiggly, on top of not knowing things that I don't know how to explain. I was working with some of the ones who need extra help. They really do need extra help. One kid who was adorable and had really good taste (he drew a picture of me walking a yak sized dog to the playground where he was on the swings with my brother) ended up writing something like this:
We walk to day play us day time ground.
He wanted to say that we walk together to the playground during the day. Was it always like this? Were there always kids who had this much trouble? Did they just get ignored?
There was a kid in the room with Asberger's syndrome, a form of autism, who said some of the things I was thinking. The spine on his book broke and he said, "We need some kind of expert to fix this now. Now!" The art teacher sang a little song and from the side of the room I heard, "Oh, please!"
Right on, little bro.
Now I'm tired and am going to sleep just about right away. It's a wacky thing, those little tykes. They pack a lot of power in those bodies. I don't know where they keep it. Maybe in their little shoes or little backpacks or extraordinarily big mouths.
Oh please!
Posted by dotty at October 24, 2005 10:27 PM