The Pebble and the Boulder Day 1

(Disclaimer: The names of all children in all of my blogs have been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty) children. I have used the TV characters from shows of my youth.)

Eddie showed up on the second day of school without an adult to enroll him. He simply showed up. On his first day in sixth grade it was obvious we had a little boy crying out for help. He got in trouble everywhere he went. During the first week of school we focus on the positives of each child and complimenting students doing the right thing, but Eddie had me baffled. I had to go straight to, "This is not going to fly, mister!" I explained to him about our after school intervention we had available for anyone having five infractions in a week. It was as if he was shooting up flares saying, "sign me up, because I want to stay." He didn't have any school supplies, so we quickly gave him the supplies he needed. On his next day at school I noticed he was wearing the same clothes from the day before. Most kids come to school during the first week wearing a brand new outfit and sporting a new hairdo. Eddie came to school looking like his hair hadn't been cut all summer and wearing clothes that looked like he had slept in them.

By the third week of school Eddie had escalated his efforts to stay in trouble. I noticed him trying to be "bad to the bone", but he really had a good heart. So what exactly was his story? I I started noticing his short fuse with two specific boys in his class. I pulled Eddie aside and told him the story of the "Pebble and the Boulder".

"Eddie, you seem like a pretty tough boy. If Richie threw a pebble at you, would you be hurt?" I asked. Eddie replied with a strong no. "If Richie and his friend threw a pebble at you for an entire week, would you be hurt?" He replied, "Well, not really." I said, "Well, you might have a bruise, but you're a tough kid, so of course you wouldn't be hurt. So, what if the entire 6th grade threw a pebble at you? Would that hurt?" He thought for moment and I knew he was wanting to be tough and tell me how much he couldn't be hurt, but he replied, "Yeah, that would probably hurt." I said, "It would probably do more to hurt your heart than anything else, but what if Richie threw a boulder at you....would that hurt? Of course it would. You know, Eddie, you are probably one of the toughest kids in sixth grade. Why are you letting Richie throw boulders at you and have power over you? You have the power to say, "whatever dude" and walk away. Everytime you try to have a "comeback" Richie scores a point and the boulder scores a direct hit on you. I can see you can't take it anymore, so what are we going to do about it? I can't move you any further away from him in my room. I need you to do your very best to ignore him. Dude, just press the mute button on your remote control and don't listen to what he's selling. You have the power to turn him off. And Eddie, I know you have gotten to "After School Intervention" as fast as you possibly could, so be ready to have a serious plan for change. Be thinking about it because you are not leaving my room without a better plan for success."

About that time the whistle blew signaling the end of recess and Eddie was headed to lunch. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I knew he was on a short fuse with Richie.

Later in the afternoon it was time for my last rotation of science for the day. Eddie stormed through my room like a runaway freight train. He started screaming, "Richie called me gay." I pulled Eddie aside and said, "That was so mean of him to say that." I shook my head from side to side and said, "That is a big problem and I'm going to do something about it. Right now I have a full lesson planned for class, so you try not to worry about it. We will get to the bottom of this soon."

I started teaching the demonstration lab. I had plans of plotting on a line graph different chemical changes. Each reaction had different timing with the last demonstration being an eruption of green slime. I was just beginning the first eruption when Eddie exploded instead. Evidently Richie was mouthing mean things to Eddie and he was ready to fight. I tried to calm him down but he continued to yell. Despite my best efforts, Eddie had to go to the office. Eddie got crushed by the boulder. It didn't hurt him physically, but his heart took a blow he could no longer handle.

I went home mentally and physically exhausted. I felt like the situation was a tremendous boulder on me. It was really hard for me to leave my emotions at school. I went to bed early thinking about what could be done to help Eddie.