Thursday, September 30, 2004
 

I'd Do The Right Thing, If I Knew What It Was

I have a student who's missed exactly half the class days. This, needless to say, puts this student at a significant disadvantage, grade-wise. This student also failed to turn in a rough draft of the first paper. This student had previously left in the middle of the class, claiming a migraine, which I felt sure at the time was a lie to get out of groupwork.

The student talked to me today after class, and it would seem that I was right to be concerned. I won't catalogue the student's issues here, but my gut instinct that there were deeper psychological issues involved (and not a general distaste for drama class) seems to have been correct. I talked with the student for awhile after class, and the student was intermittently in tears. I felt horrible, but I do have to take the overwhelming absences and failure to turn in major assignments into account. But I can tell, gut instinct, fellow feeling, whatever, that this student is in a very bad spot, and I don't want to punish for that. But, without some sort of medical excuse from a school authority, there's not much I can do without opening myself to charges of favoritism or generally being unfair to the class at large.

In the end, I referred the student to counseling (we teachers routinely get brochures on referring students to mental health, so this wasn't an unprecedented move on my part). I did my best to point out that I was not calling the kid crazy, unstable, whatever, but that I did think that an outlet could be useful in times of significant pressure and stress. And so on. I really, really, really hope that I put the right spin on it-- because I really didn't mean to imply that the student was nuts or anything. I'm just worried. And I'd love an excuse to cut the student some slack.

I feel like I should have reached out to this student sooner, when I felt intuitively that there was a problem. That I should have trusted my instinct and at least made some move earlier. Then I worry that I didn't handle it as well as I could have today. I don't want to see this kid suffer, and I don't want to see the kid crash and burn. I see the kid twice a week, for two 1:25 sessions. I'm just a teacher who's barely older than the kid in question (I only say "kid" for gender-neutral purposes). There's not that much I can do, and I don't know where my boundaries are. I just feel horribly guilty for not acting earlier. Misery recognizes company. If that's the only benefit I get from knowing at least some version what the kid is feeling, I should have used it earlier.

Bah. This is going to continue to bother me.

Elvisette philosophized at 11:15 PM