Dad On Duty #43

Good day at The Other Job today.

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The Boss was gone much of the day, as were a few other key administrative folks. The AP put that in perspective for me: “it’s just you and me at lunch”.
You’ve got to understand, in elementary school, lunch is D-Day. The only things more challenging are preparatory drills, visitor events and an actual fire.

Ok, no prob. We got this.

And we did, smooth as silk. She covered the cafeteria, pretty much on her own, and I covered the hallways. And it went as well as any other day, when there are normally 4 – 5 folks doing the same thing.

It’s all about practice, people. All about practice.

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I worked individually with several scholars today. One was a young man who’s struggling with showing respect and following directions. He often withdraws and disconnects.

So we decided he needed to practice his interpersonal skills in a more focused and controlled environment than the general classroom population. I first talked with him about his opportunity to work with me on special projects, outside of class. “Very few scholars get to do that; its a big deal”, I told him.

He was intrigued.

“You’ve been chosen for this because you have great character and we believe in you, and we think you have unique skills. But you can’t tell the other kids; they’ll be jealous.

“You’ve got to show me that you can follow directions with respect and…this will be the hard part…..you’ve got to show you can take constructive criticism and still be positive. Ok?”

“Ok. ”

“The respect thing needs to start now; how do you answer an adult. Just with ‘ok?'”

“No. Sir. Yes sir, I understand.”

“Great, let’s get to work.”

He did well, and interacted positively with the teachers he was assigned to help. He took some minor criticism well.

His affect was great; smiling and laughing the whole time. And apparently that’s not always how it is.

I returned him to class and went on to the next special project/scholar.

At the end of the day, his teacher came and found me.

She said he asked her: “does ‘character’ mean I do good things?”

A little taken aback, she answered “yes, it does”.

“The Watchdog told me I had character. So I’m doing some good things. I can’t wait to tell my mom and dad”.

The teacher thanked me and headed back to class.

One little step forward. And tomorrow we’ll hopefully take another little step forward. Occasionally, we’ll take a step back too, I know.

But at the end of the year, I think we’ll see a different young man before us.