A new job
"Mr Walker, would you come out to recess with us, as some people are not well and you need to tell them that they're well," six-year-old M said to me.
I pondered what M might have meant, and somehow -- I'm not sure what exact words I used -- managed to make it to the staffroom for a cup of tea in preference to well-wishing students in the playground.
About one-and-a-half hours later; M again: "Mr Walker, would you come to lunch with us. At recess we saw a caterpillar. It was furry and Grendel* touched it."
"That sounds great," I replied, with a fair dose of sincerity, "but Mr Walker has to get home to look after Mrs Walker, who is sick in bed."
M is one of about twenty students in the Year One class I have recently started working in four mornings a week. My job is to help a boy with Autism (not M): to keep him 'on task', and, just as importantly, to prevent him disrupting the other children. Thus far, the work has been testing yet rewarding.
* Not his real name.
I pondered what M might have meant, and somehow -- I'm not sure what exact words I used -- managed to make it to the staffroom for a cup of tea in preference to well-wishing students in the playground.
About one-and-a-half hours later; M again: "Mr Walker, would you come to lunch with us. At recess we saw a caterpillar. It was furry and Grendel* touched it."
"That sounds great," I replied, with a fair dose of sincerity, "but Mr Walker has to get home to look after Mrs Walker, who is sick in bed."
M is one of about twenty students in the Year One class I have recently started working in four mornings a week. My job is to help a boy with Autism (not M): to keep him 'on task', and, just as importantly, to prevent him disrupting the other children. Thus far, the work has been testing yet rewarding.
* Not his real name.
Labels: kids' comments
posted by Sauntering Walker at 8:13 PM
2 Comments:
My job is to help a boy with Autism (not M): to keep him 'on task', and, just as importantly, to prevent him disrupting the other children.
Presumably his job is to do the same thing for you ;)
Which begs the question: who has the more difficult job? :)
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