Because I don't want to send the school bus to all corners of our district, I have been giving a student who recently moved a ride in the morning. Her idea was that she would call me if she was coming; I assume she is coming because attendance is required and went to pick her up. She answered the door sleepily and just stood there. I asked if she was coming to class and she said, "No, I didn't call you." I stood there waiting for an excuse or an apology or at least a thank you for trying and I got nothing at all. I walked away, looked back to see if she might still say something and there was nothing.
That night I got a voice mail message saying, "Me and D are coming to school tomorrow." Nothing like, "Can you please pick us up?" I did go to get them and greeted her with a "Hello, K, How are you?" Her response: "Fine." No reciprocal "How are you?"
I did tell her I felt badly that she hadn't said she was sorry we had miscommunicated or thanked me for going out of my way. She did thank me at that point. Then she said she had been at her mom's until 2 a.m. waiting for someone to give her a ride back to her own place. Her mom had no milk for the baby so they had to go home. He was crying with hunger.
Again, I am aware that I need to have a sense of compassion for lives that are lived on the edge for whatever reason. But I also know that someone has to teach this young lady to act graciously and politely or she'll never get ahead--GED or not. So maybe I'll be so bold as to teach her to return a greeting of "How are you" in kind. Or maybe I'll ask one of my colleagues to work on that with her. I may have done enough at this point!
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