It's one of my student teachers.
At our morning meeting she made a big deal out of the fact that she didn't want to meet in the mornings because it was her "photocopying time". She also provided a lengthy discourse on how much she hated riding the bus to school.
When I read her "professional (PROFESSIONAL!) reflections" I found more venting about how much she hates the bus as well as,
"I will try to be more grateful for smelly mentally ill folk,"
and
"On my way to school today I saw a dead body..."
Her professional (PROFESSIONAL!) portfolio contained a eulogy which she said was what guided her teaching practice, knowing that if we are all the same in death we must all be the same in life. It also had a two page description of her poverty-stricken drug-addicted illiterate divorced parents who offered her no support and provided her with a reason to teach.
The school coordinator reported that she'd also been in to complain to him about the long bus ride she had to take every day as well as to complain that she wanted to teach a different grade level than she'd been assigned.
Oh my god.
What do I do?
I can understand a little venting here and there. I can fully understand being moved by poetry and by having a difficult past that inspires one to do better for kids.
But I don't understand not knowing WHO you should say these things to and who you shouldn't. And I REALLY don't understand, "On my way to school today I saw a dead body..."
I am at a loss. This girl doesn't need the support of a facilitator. She needs a doctor.
_
2 comments:
How old is she? She may well be at a stage wherein she is romanticizing her lousy parentage as well as death in general. Which is unpleasant for all involved, but not unheard of and certainly not permanent.
I, of course, haven't met her, and in any case I am not a psychiatrist, but what you have written here suggests less mental illness and more inappropriate behavior mixed with idiosyncracy. For example, wanting to devote the first bit of the day to photocopying -- I personally get into a routine, and if it's upset, my groove goes out of whack and my odd here is not her desire, but her expression of such. You say, "meetings are more effective for me in the afternoons. Can we schedule them that way?" not "I am a crazy photocopying madwoman. Fear my wrath."
I think someone needs to sit down with her and have an indepth conversation about what sorts of things are expected to be in one's professional reflections and portfolio. And about what kind of behavior is expected, as well as what is unacceptable. I imagine she's going to need a fair bit of bluntness, however tactful. And, on the chance that she is actually mentally unstable, I recommend that two people sit down with her.
Some people are just so lost in their personal struggles that they don't quite realize that they are not as interesting to other people as they are to themselves. I went through a stage like this, myself, although pleasantly enough I managed to avoid dead people on my ride to work.
Hivy Ivy,
I'd guess she's 22ish and definitely agree that she is romanticizing her difficult upbringing as well as poetic versions of death. (I think I did that too when I was FOURTEEN.)
I absolutely agree with you that not all her thoughts are odd, just the fact that she chooses to express them to people to whom she shouldn't. It's sort of like me, as a teacher, telling my principal I'd rather he didn't hold parent-teacher interviews on Tuesdays because Tuesday is a good television night. (It's not.) While there would be nothing weird about me saying that to Shawn, it would be weird to say it to my superior. I guess, in this case, with me as her facilitator, I thought it was a peculiar thing to say to me rather than to whisper about it behind my back. ;)
I can see what you're suggesting and that it may be an issue of immaturity (and quirkiness) more than of mental instability. I do hope so!
I actually spoke with the Director of Student Support and came up with a plan of action which, just like you said, will involve lots of blunt but tactful redirection focusing on being a professional rather than making any judgment calls on what she has written about her personal thoughts and life.
As for the dead body, the Director was alarmed by that and actually spent some time trying to figure out what that was about. She said there was a traffic fatality that morning and that perhaps this student's bus route took her by the scene of the accident. We're giving her the benefit of the doubt on that one, at least until she whispers it again... "I see dead people."
Then I'm going to move and change my phone number.
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