rilly wanna smack some parents

[wordinista]

Dude.  There is no excuse.  No. Excuse.  For a 10 year old child being completely unable to read.  I'm talking "has a hard time identifying which sounds go with which letters" unable-to-read.

And you know what?  It wouldn't be so bad if the kid actually cared and actually wanted to work, but oh my sweet monkey jebus, getting this kid to do work is like pulling teeth.  From a rock.

Actual dialogue from work tonight:

Me:  "So here we've got the letter combination 'sm.'"
Kid:  "Yeah."
Me:  "Can you tell me any words that begin with 'sm'?"
Kid:  *long, long pause, during which time he looks all around the class, then periodically back to me to see if I'm still paying attention; I AM*  ...I dunno.  Whatever.
Me:  *counts to ten, stays positive*  What do you do when someone takes a picture of you?
Kid:  Oh.  Uh.  Smile.

NO JOKE.  This went on for the first whole hour of the session.  Mind you, I'm meant to be dividing my time up equally among 3 kids.  This one was SUCH a time-sucker.  I'd ask him to do something while I worked with the other kids, and when I got back to him, he'd done nothing.  And when I say, "do something" it's like, "Please write down three words that begin with the letters 'st.'"

Me:  "...You haven't done any of your work yet?"
Kid:  "Yeah, I don't know how to do it."
Me:  ".............."

DUDE.  KILL ME NOW.

Comments

[rya-kelley.livejournal.com]

And he's TEN?!?!?!?!

Is he possibly dyslexic? Seriously though, I'm with you on the smacking his parents around.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

No -- Sylvan runs a battery of tests on students before placing them in programs. Dyslexia would've come up. Of course, it's possible the kid just lazed his way through the tests and that's how he got in a program reserved for kids age 4-6.

No word of a lie -- I was working with another beginning-reading student who's in FIRST GRADE. I could hear her whispering under her breath the answers to the questions I asked Problem Child.

Eventually another teacher had to come over and help with Problem Child because he literally was not getting any work done without someone on his ass constantly.

Oh -- and because this came up in a few IM conversations: he's not from a low-income area school, and his parents are far from low-income. The Sylvan programs Are Not Cheap. I'm talking hundreds -- thousands -- of dollars, here, depending on how many subjects the kid's signed up for, and how many hours of tutoring they're signed up for. Fact is, I'd have more patience with the kid if he WAS from a low-income area school.

His attitude is ROTTEN, too. We're supposed to chat up the kids when they first arrive. Break the ice, you know? Stuff like, "So, how was school today? Did you do anything fun? Hey, Monday was your day off -- what did you do?"

Me: "Hey, [name] good to see you again -- how was school?

His reply? "I dunno. Okay." (Mumbled, of course, while looking bored the whole while.)

"Well, Monday was a day off, right?"

"Yeah."

"What'd you do?"

*long, long, ridiculously long pause* "I dunno. Watched TV."

"What'd you watch? Anything good?"

*shrug and incomprehensible answer that might've been "I dunno."*

ARGH.

[rya-kelley.livejournal.com]

Forget the parents. Someone needs to bust his ass. At ten, he should know better. Wait, first his parents, then him. They all need to be sent to military school.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

*would love to be the one to bust his ass, really*

[rya-kelley.livejournal.com]

Get in line.

[rya-kelley.livejournal.com]

Also, I think he's yanking you. He probably does know the things you're trying to teach him and he's being problematic for attention. I'll bet you anything.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's crossed my mind more than once. Personally I think he fucked off through the testing, and now he's stuck in remedial basic PHONICS, and being a little jerk because it gets him attention.

Either that or he's lazy liek whoa.

Actually, he is pretty damn lazy. Maybe he thinks it's a waiting game or something -- that if he just does nothing for long enough, we'll all give up. Except... his parents shelled out a small fortune for this program. This isn't the Florida School System he's dealing with anymore.