Heavy heart

I wrote two kids up today. I hate doing that. It makes me feel icky and bleah inside.

The reason was for Disruption of the Education Process, or DEP for short. Whatever. Unfortunately, though, they did it.

The reason I feel particularly icky about it is because of this.

Kid #1: He lost his dad several years ago and recently lost his mom in a car accident. (She was born three months after I was.) While I hate to let a kid get away with bad behavior because of personal things, sometimes it's hard for me to separate the behavior from the kid. It's a total package.

I'm a contextualist, even in my former life as an art person. Now my works of art are kids, and I try to understand them in their proper context. Still doesn't excuse me having to wait for them to get with the program and take valuable time which would otherwise be spent in good solid rehearsal.

Still.

Kid #2: This kid has been at the football games and enthusiastically played the cymbals. His behavior is otherwise ok in class, but the last few days he's testing the rules, maybe because he's being a space cadet? Don't know. Hated to do it to him, too, but had to.

And now I'm beginning to think that my 8th graders think they're immune because one of them is consistently bringing gum to class and another one has started talking to her neighbor, right under my nose, not even whispering.

I'll happily remind them that they were just like the 7th graders last year, because, well, they were 7th graders.

And I'm definitely having to tighten up the rules because it's such a large group.

It's not as fun as it used to be. I like being able to joke with my students. But if I do that, they think that all the rules go out the window.

So I had to do the referrals today, and I take it personally.

'Scuse me while I laugh ironically at the thought that these referrals might possibly upset me more than the kids.