that one girl

that one girl

fiction
edward w pritchard

I was teaching for my friend as a substitute teacher and the class was being good. Relatively good, at this junior high in the inner city the students had trouble sitting and focusing and it was hard to get any real work done. Still they were nice kids and were respectful to me and unless I let thing get started they would work a little on the assignment my friend left. I had to teach the same class 6 times to different students of mixed abilities in the same classroom.

The afternoon classes always seem to be the harder to handle and the boys are usually worse than the girls, of course, at least at this age, 7th grade. Young girls 5th grade are potentially the worst of the girls, and 10th grade girls are unpredictable in their behavior. I usually keep a barrage of control at the boys and let the girls follow my criticisms of the young men as to how to act.

It's hard to get the work done because the children do not like to read because they don't read well. At least a large percentage don't read well. They are intelligent but at this age at least, 13 or so, they don't want to read. That makes it difficult to teach all subjects. It also results in the homework and in school worksheets being too easy. The teacher directs the work to the lower functioning students. Some students have trouble focusing and that slows down the class.

Walking around, managing by locomotion, facing the class, confronting students who weren't working, helping others get started I found a quiet girl in the back who wasn't doing her paper. I had taught for my friend before and the girl was shy and quiet and I hardly remembered her, a good thing for it meant she wasn't making trouble.

Confronted politely she told me she was done with the three worksheets. [In about fifteen minutes into the class]. She then asked me if she could read me something. She had a green leather notebook about 5x8 and it said horoscopes. She wrote horoscopes on the people she met for a hobby.
She read me mine. I had never talked to her but had been in front of the class room twice with her. Once for 40 minutes and today for about 15.

She said you don't like to take orders, you go your own way, to your detriment, you like us students, but sometimes you get angry easily, you worry about us, more than anything you want us to take our school work seriously, you sometimes have trouble being organized, and then she had written a few other things.

That one girl, she was astute for a seventh grader, and creative. She could do horoscopes now and someday do psychoanalysis. Sometimes teaching is rewarding.
end

unbend what's crooked

unbend what's crooked

fiction
edward w pritchard

Ardo was the cook over at the Hungarian restaurant over at the corner of Market and a major side street and she had been brought specially to America at age 15 to work in her Uncle's restaurant. She had been chosen because she was a very hard worker and was to be trained as a cook in the family business. She arrived at 8AM and worked every night till 7 or 8PM. If she was off work for a day business dropped precipitately for although her creations were modeled and recipes were strictly followed no one could cook like her and the customers knew it. Her cabbage soup was the best in the area and her dumplings were unable to be duplicated. After she worked all day, at about 5:30PM, for she couldn't work like she once could, she would take a forty minute break, her first break since she arrived; and sit out between the bar and the conference room and eat some of her favorites of her own cooking. The owner approved of her sitting in the restaurant and eating because the regulars knew of her, she had been written up in several area newspapers and even once been on a food network TV show, and it made them want to enjoy her cooking even more.

Joesph was the chief magistrate over at the juvenile court and was thinking about Ardo from the bench in his courtroom. Joseph sometimes saw Ardo in the Hungarian restaurant when he went for dinner or to watch a basketball game with friends after work. She wore an old fashion hairnet,like his Grandmother had when she cooked, and Joseph enjoyed Ardo's cooking and like others often complimented her on her cooking. She was a short woman and now nearly seventy but she always smiled shyly and said the same thing. She said " I have been cooking that [ whatever he had ordered] for a long time and had a lot of practice". She said it in a heavy Hungarian accent but her smile always made Joseph feel like coming back to the Hungarian restaurant.

Today Joseph was presiding over a hearing of a fourteen year old boy who was incorrigible over at the Junior High. The boy had been before him before. The student had a habit of walking out of class, half through the period just out of boredom. He was failing most classes and missed a lot of school and got poor grades. The boy's Mother who was raising him alone always took off work and came to court and sat patiently in back of him during the hearings.

Each hearing for the boy brought in more and more experts from the school system. Today, the boy had thrown a book at and hit his teacher with the book, and then immediately afterward thrown another book heavily to the floor of the classroom disrupting the other students. The regular teacher wasn't required to attend the court hearing but the school system sent special counselors, psychologists, an intervention specialist and a pastoral counselor. In addition to the school system lawyer, there was a union lawyer for the teachers at the hearing as well. The boy was polite to the Judge, having been coached by his appointed counsel , but in general he seemed above the rules to the Magistrate.

The psychologist for the school system had interviewed the boy several times and although he had some normal problems typical to any teenager, the boy was considered able to function in a classroom environment. Nothing prevented him from sitting in class, following instructions, and doing his homework. For several years he had been receiving additional tutoring and daily counseling but to no avail. He didn't take school seriously and was just being in truth molly coddled along.

Joseph the chief Magistrate assigned the boy to work with Ardo over at the Hungarian restaurant if it could be arranged. If the boy successfully completed three days full time work minute for minute with Ardo then Joseph the Magistrate would not put the boy in reform school for assaulting his teacher [ with a book].

About ten days later there was a follow up hearing after the boy's stint at the restaurant.

Magistrate-"what did you learn"?

Student- i am very sorry your honor. Mrs Lusinski [ Ardo] works very hard. I couldn't have lasted another day in her job.

Magistrate- "did you do her job while she watched"

Student- "no, she split up her work with me for the three days"

Magistrate- "what do you think about school now"

Student "please give me another chance your honor, I promise to do better. Can I get some help with some of my subjects until I can catch up"?
End