Mentor, Cont'd

Today's meeting went fairly well. I got a lot of 'are you kidding' looks from him, but I think I was able to convince him that I wasn't a threat to him -- that he could tell me the truth. I don't think that will carry a lot of water, but its a start.

He told me some things that as an adult, I found hard to believe -- for example, that one teacher favors girls, letting them bring in homework late when she doesn't let the boys do it -- but I gathered that he does believe it, which for the moment is what matters. And he told me that one teacher talks way too fast, which could simply mean 'way too fast for him', but still.... I arranged with him to spend time on Thursday going over his agenda book to get a sense of what tests and projects are coming. I fully expect that he won't have any in the book -- he told me, at one point, that he had no projects, then five minutes later he told me that he had gotten a sheet from one class regarding a project, but didn't know where it was. He gave the expected and 'correct' answer when I asked what he was planning to do about that; I got nothing from his answer, but it lead into a brief discussion of what you do when an adult asks you a question and its obvious what they want the answer to be. I think he was surprised that I knew this happens.

Still very slow progress, but a little bit, yeah, I think so.

And I got a nice note from one of his teachers about what I'm doing. I had written to the three who own the classes where he is having the most trouble, to keep them aware and ask for assistance. She offered me some, which I appreciate. And, oddly enough, I accidentally did something right from a political perspective: when I sent the note, I copied the class's guidance counselor. She told me today that since she was copied, she could now bring the subject of this kid up in teacher staff meetings, which is, I think, a good thing, even though I'm surprised that she couldn't have done it otherwise. What is this, a union shop?

Meeting again on Thursday.