Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pout Boy Gets His Comeuppance

Pout Boy has been, quite honestly, a royal pain in the butt all year. Pout Boy hasn't had a locker since November since he refuses to bring his books to class. He'll come in, tardy, make a big production of it, and throw himself in his seat. He's earned himself a visit to "isolation island" in every class because he can't shut up. He thinks he's amusing cracking jokes and making comments and yelling at his friends across the room. When I moved him to an even more isolated corner so he couldn't be a pest to everyone else in the room, his comment was that "I'm funny and I'm keeping them entertained.".

Right.

Forget calling/emailing the parents. They don't want to hear it, won't answer phone calls, and most likely delete all the emails. He's been banned from the nurse's office as he found a reason to go there nearly once a day and did nothing but sit around and crack jokes and use it as an excuse to get out of class. He's spent quite a bit of time in In-School-Suspension and he's been suspended a few times as well. He begged and begged and begged to get into after-school tutoring. We found him a slot, put him in, and his behavior got him kicked out within weeks. The tragedy of it is that he can be, when he puts his mind to it (which is rare) a good student. He can do the work. However, if something irritates him, if he gets yelled at by a teacher or other adult (which is frequent), he'll put his head down and pout and stomp around like a baby.

He really does think he's too cool for school. He's hip, he's happening, he's the coolest guy on the team.

Or so he thought.

Mrs. Language this week has started the kids in on a mythology project and they're having to work in groups. And for the final project of the year she decided to let the kids chose their own groups. On Monday she let her students roam around the room a bit and get their groups organized.

Pout Boy went to one group and they said no.

He went to another and they turned him down.

A third said "no way!"

A fourth shook their heads no before he got to their desks.

A fifth said they didn't want him because they knew they'd end up doing the work themselves.

A sixth and final group said they'd rather not because he's just too difficult to work with.

Crash and burn, baby!

Pout Boy, after hitting up each and every single group in the class, hoping for someone, anyone, to work with, came up empty.

He stomped over to his desk, whined at Mrs. Language that everyone was being mean, and put his head down and pouted the rest of the period.

There's a life lesson in there for Pout Boy, should he chose to see it. Will he? Who knows?

However, I'm a bit tickled to see that the other kids in the class have at least learned that having someone on your team who won't work is not a good thing. It's not all about having your pals with you and having a good time. It's about picking a group that can work together and get the job done with everyone doing their job. They just figured out that Pout Boy wasn't going to be an asset to their group and turned him down. They've been in class with him all year. They know what he's like. And they aren't laughing now.

8 comments:

Princess Lionhead said...

It's funny how that works. I had a student like that this year and he was such a baby about everything. At one point, he was pouting about something I said no to, and he was sitting with his hood over his head and moping at his desk. One student asked me what the pouting kid was doing, and I said in a sickingly sweet voice, "Boys and girls, this is what we call having a hissy fit. My three year old does this too. And the best way to deal with a little boy that is having a hissy fit is to ignore it. So let's all pretend like we don't seee it." It was funny.

The Vegas Art Guy said...

I have one of them in my class. Drama boy is all about the drama all the time.

Mr. W said...

yeah I graduated from walnut high in 1995. So I was in elementary school back then. Being that I have grown up here it has changed alot. I mean alot. All those hills where the cattle & cows used to roam are all but gone. We have million dollar homes being built...seriously starting at a million.

Freeways have been expanded and built. The make up of the community has changed alot. Mostly an Asian community now. The biggest thing happening now is that they want to build a stadium for an NFL team by the 60/57 exchange, by the Diamond Bar golf course. yeah.

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Mrs. T said...

As bad as it sounds, I love stories like this. I love that the other kids see it too and that Pout Boy gets what he has coming.

Anonymous said...

Don't you just want to say back to him, "You're an ass!"? But of course you can't, LOL. If enough students come to ignore him consistently he might eventually shape up to some degree. At this stage only peer pressure will make a difference to him.

NYC Educator said...

It's very upsetting to hear about parents like that who enable that sort of attitude and behavior. I usually bring parents like that to the school to maximize the inconvenience of allowing such things. And while I've never yet had to threaten this, NY has a law, I'm told, that parents who don't show up for school conferences can be charged with neglect.

It's good your kids protected themselves. Sometimes kids actually side with the teacher against uncooperative students. It's kind of cool when that happens.

Sorry I haven't done the meme thing yet.

HappyChyck said...

Wow! Pout Boy must be really bad if his classmates will so boldly stand up to him! I'm proud of your students for standing up for themselves. I hope Pout Boy learns to take responsibility for his actions one day! Do you see any cracks? Do you think it might happen?