He was such a good boy, he always sent me a Mother’s Day card!

Lemme see, he sent a bizarre email message to the president of a large university. I won’t say which one. And threatened the football coach of said large university in some way that I didn’t understand. I thought it said something about a baseball bat but it didn’t sound like anyone was too scared. Burglaries? Where? Hopefully not my neighborhood…

Because this young man is known to me from the Hallowed Halls of the Haisley Manatees Hawks Huskies. And this is not going to be politically correct, but.

It often seemed like he and his younger sister were held up as exemplary students. And I think they were indeed intelligent high achievers. I didn’t encounter them very often because they were not at the same grade level as my urchins. When I did, it was always ugly. Once, when I was printing the school newsletter, not one of my favorite jobs, the principal very ceremoniously led this young man and a bunch of younger students into the curriculum room. He was being trumped up as a mentor to younger students! As soon as the principal left the room, he began gushing a non-stop string of expletives, despite the fact that an, um, adult, was in the room. Me. Or didn’t I qualify as an authority figure? I dunno, I guess I was just one o’ those stoopid ol’ pto moms. And then there was the time that his younger sister went on and on at great length about all the wonderful outfits she had sewed for herself and then sequed into an acount about how she and her brother had ambushed some neighborhood kid from behind and beat him up.

Maybe these kids did get in trouble for some of this stuff but all I ever heard about them was about how intelligent and wonderful they were and how great their parents were and yada yada yada. And that was especially good in the eyes of the local school district because these kids were African American. The achievement gap is as bad here in this “upscale” city as it is anywhere else and these kids were an exception. But it didn’t seem to matter how they behaved!!! This young man (and maybe his sister) probably needed some kind of mental counseling way back when. Why didn’t he get it?

The achievement gap is a problem. We keep throwing money and programs and people at it. Nothing seems to really work. I don’t have any answers. Well, maybe I do. But we will never have the money or the personnel to do it. *Every* kid — white, black, blue, purple, or green — deserves to have a teacher at every grade level that makes an effort to know and have some understanding of what they are about! Not to mention absolute, unconditional love and support at home. I sure wasn’t perfect about raising kids but I did try. I think that many families, minority or not, have some difficult issues about school. In some cases, we are going on three generations of people who haven’t had good experiences with schools. Of course they are wary.

I’m out of steam but I do hope this young man gets the help he needs.

3 Responses to “He was such a good boy, he always sent me a Mother’s Day card!”

  1. Webmomster Says:

    All I have to say is that kid and his sister were very good at pulling the wool over the eyes of the A2 School Administration. I’ll bet – given the description provided – that if anyone were to have lodged a complaint against either of them, the complainers were shrugged off as “jealous” or “liars”.

  2. Isa Says:

    what? i don’t entirely understand this…

  3. kayak woman Says:

    My urchins always avoided trouble with other kids like the plague so I was never involved in any of those little meetings in the principal’s office. Friends who did get to experience those say that there are no victims in the eyes of the school administration. Each participant is equally guilty.