If you haven't already heard about my new mentor, well you can get all caught up here. But what this really boils down to, the inspirational story here, is this. I'm a selfish, self-cenetered, self-obsessed neurotic who can't stumble through a half-hour of this life without bumping into his own ego and manifestations thereof. All this can be de-motivational, and sometimes when other teachers are lesson planning, I sit around and say, "Gee, I don't really feel motivated to lesson plan. I don't FEEL LIKE lesson planning. I guess I'll sit here and continue feeling disconnected."
Then, this lady walked into my classroom, started telling me about her student and his special needs, and the part that I remember most clearly was her saying: "My son is NOT going to flunk Algebra. His brother goes to (some school in Pennsylvania that I am forgetting the name of right now), and that's just not an option for him, for his self-esteem in this family ... for ...." okay, I'm totally paraphrasing and the exact words are more and more jumbled as I get further away from that crucial moment, when she just walked into my classroom and told me that she wasn't going to let her son flunk Algebra. She drew a line in the sand--this was a standard in her life, for her son's life.
Like I mentioned above, I'm pretty selfish and neurotic, and so it's a freaking miracle that I didn't react negatively, get butt-hurt, and start conversations with all my colleagues about the crazy unreasonable parent who walked into my classroom that Friday. I'm calling that a moment of grace which I can take no credit for. (I'm actually trying to take credit for it right now--that's really what I'm doing here--reverse psychology. Don't let me get away with it.) But IN ANY CASE, it now seems inspirational to me what she did, walking into my classroom, standing up for her son, and starting to inspire me with all sorts of ideas about what her son needs and what other students like him need--and there are a lot of them in my classes. These kids are learning-disabled when it comes to math, and because of this woman I'm more motivated than usual when it comes to figuring out how to help them overcome that learning disability.
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