Monday, November 05, 2007

And He Returns

They're sending Joshua back. As a 4th grader. Promoted in November.
I didn't ask them to.
I should have known it was never really a choice.
He was happier than I have ever seen him.
He bounced. Literally bounced up and down the halls. All day.
I gave him a tight hug and focused on being happy, too.
The worries about differentiating instruction, and numbers, and what's fair and not fair and my intense anger at colleagues who do not do their job will come later.
Every day I become more and more jaded about this system and what it does to kids....but for now, he's mine. He always was. They just took him away for a little while.

2 comments:

ZP said...

Don't go, quietly or not, into that dark night where the jaded system saps your energy. All systems, by their nature, have some element of jaded-ness. Looks like Joshua's beating this system, this year. You can, too.
BEST THOUGHTS your way with the extra work/prep I know this means.

Julie said...

:) I like to think of him bouncing up and down the halls as his way of beating the system.
He did win. And if this is my last year, teaching period or just at my school, I'm glad he's going to be with me.