Obedience

The next day was a good day too until---. We started out reading from a snake book and a Magic Tree book. He proudly showed me the pages he had 'read' in the Silverstein poem book. He found a poem he loved called "The Tree House." I was beyond happy at how things were going.
On Mondays and Tuesdays, we go to the special education classroom where this boy works with a boy who has serious problems; they connect very well. The special education teacher has been very happy with the arrangement. However, my boy wants to work with the other boy when it is free time so they can play. I talked to the teacher about it and she liked the idea because her student doesn't get much time to play at home (and even less at school I might add). But, as we are talking, she realizes she had spent the day, with the boy I tutor, as a substitute and he did nothing in the classroom for her. So, she says that would be okay but it should be a reward for doing work in the classroom. (She is not even his teacher.)
This is wrong on so many levels and I went home in tears. First, she didn't even realize the boy with me is the same boy she had trouble with until well after the fact! Appalling!!! Her student needs this interaction and my student is thriving with this relationship. BUT, as with most educational settings, the most important thing is that the children know how to do WHAT THEY ARE TOLD, WHEN THEY ARE TOLD AND HOW THEY ARE TOLD all day long!!!!!
The incident reminds me why I always give up. Educated, well-meaning and, otherwise, nice people cannot get passed the importance OVER EVERTHING ELSE of students doing what they are told.
They don't understand that when obedience becomes the first order of business everthing else (reading skills, math skills, thinking skills, people skills, self-discipline, confidence, etc.) suffers. If obedience became a less important goal, the more important skills would increase. CHILDREN WANT TO MAKE US HAPPY! All it takes to make that happen is to think of them even a little bit.

Children's Experiences and Reading

The boy and I have had about ten days together. (We have been interrupted by spring break, his suspension and my own two days of 'couldn't do it.')
Our hours would start out with me reading to him while he drew with crayons or played with geometric blocks or built with legos. I have tried several books but I could see that he was not enjoying them. I asked him why he didn't like my reading to him (because my experience has shown me that if you let children do something else while listening, they love to be read to). He replied that he felt like I was teasing him.

The first three days of our time, he wrote three stories. He would dictate and then we would make copies, at his request, for the principal, the nurse, and other teachers. These adults responded appropriately with enthusiasm while reading the stories out loud, which had to make him proud and see the point of reading. But, after three days, he announced no more stories. And, he has stuck to it.

I am trying to figure out how to get him into reading so I began writing him letters to read in the morning and that has been successful.

Meanwhile, one of the times earlier when I was reading aloud to him, he built a tower with glow-in-the blocks. He was very excited about it and showed it to the principal. Well, the principal bought him some glow-in-the-dark rubber snakes just as a thoughtful gift and it broke open the wall I could not get through!!!

It turns out that this boy has a pet garter snake at home. Wow! He talked about it and then we went to the library to search out books on snakes. He was very excited and he began reading the titles on the books set upon the shelves. The titles had pictures but still it was a breakthrough. He also picked out two books by Shel Silverstein, whom he apparently remembers liking. He was practically skipping he was so happy. We both agreed it was a very good day!