Learning

Today I met two of my mentee's teachers --- subjects where he's been having problems. And I learned a couple of things.

He has the same general style in both classes -- when things get tough, he droops his head and looks like a puppy dog. (He's a small kid) . In the class where he likes the teacher, and feels that he can talk to her, he's improved, somewhat; that teacher knows him outside of school, and she told me that when he puts on his sad face, she chides him, telling him to knock it off. She encourages him, but she doesn't let him be sorry for himself. In the class where he doesn't like the teacher (the one where he's doing very badly), he doesn't talk to her, and she cuts him no slack, doesn't give him any encouragement. She thinks he is slacking. In fact, when I was talking to her, another teacher came up, and she said to her that we were talking about this student, and the other one said, Oh, him... whereupon they both agreed that he was low motivation and low ability. I really wanted to ask them how it was that he improved in classes he liked, but I thought that wouldn't go over so well.

So I learned some stuff.

In talking with the mentee today, I also was reminded that he knows he has this 'cute little kid' look, and he uses it to try to avoid committment. You asking poor little me to do that stuff? I need to be wary of that. But right now -- well, tonight -- I need to read the Social Studies material he's getting tomorrow. We're going to talk about it.