Love and Other Subjects by Kathleen Shoop

Author:Kathleen Shoop
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

It didn’t take long to get assertive discipline going in my room. It turned out to be a smashing idea. I almost told Klein that one morning. But before I could, I went to my mailbox and found a copy of a letter that was going in my permanent personnel file. It detailed my daily practice of not turning on the lights after lunchtime. What. A. Dick.

My room had fifteen-foot ceilings and eight windows stretching right up to the top of them across the entire back wall. Ample light. Not according to Klein. He had made it his business to arrive in my room sometime during the afternoon every day. At which time I never had the lights on.

I crumpled up the letter. The county should be putting thank you notes in my personnel file for saving on their electric bills.

Other than the letter, the day started as smooth as Coors Light going down after a long week of teaching. Even LeAndre was doing better. Not as well as I would have liked, but at least he wasn’t threatening himself or anyone else. Drugged and lethargic, he went to Miss Tucker’s room each day after only forty minutes in our room. I suspected he still struggled with internal demons that were better off living in her room. I spoke with Ms. Nardo. Her appointment to adjust the meds was a month away.

Each day of the first week of assertive discipline, I explained the rules, consequences, and incentives. If a student broke a rule like talking out, she got a warning in the form of her name on the board. With the next infraction, she received a checkmark next to her name and had a timeout in the back of the room.

A timeout was supposed to occur in a spot where the student was seated away from the rest of the class. But a room made for twenty desks that was jammed with thirty-six did not have any wiggle room for students in need of cooling off. The next checkmark warranted a timeout and a phone call home. The fourth checkmark meant a trip to Klein and a meeting with a parent.

In small groups, they got tally marks for following the rules. At a certain point, the group got a reward, and if all the groups did well, the class would earn a privilege like the dance they wanted to have. They could earn the group rewards even if their personal record was not stellar.

The plan worked frighteningly well. Even during reading discussions they followed the rules. We settled in for our whole group reading lesson—the novel Hatchet. I was breathing like a normal person. The edginess I’d grown to feel with each transition had actually dulled a bit.

“Ms. Jenkins,” Kenneth said. “I bet you think Jesus is white.”

“All the pictures of him is white,” Jamaica said.

“Are white, Jamaica,” I said. “I’m not sure what color Jesus is.”

“He ain’t a he,” Terri hissed.

“Yo mamma gone tan your hide, she hear you talking nonsense like that, Terri,” Tanesha said.

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