NCLB and Tooth Decay
J, one of my third graders, is beginning to open up.
She used to try to disappear when I’d come to get her for her thirty minutes of RSP (Resource Specialist Program) support. She’d sink in her chair, give me a giant frown. “Come on, J,” I’d tell her, “let’s go.” She’d lag behind when I walked her to the class, sometimes duck into the girls’ room along the way. “Hey, where is J?” The other kids would shrug. She’d get to the RSP room and turn around on her chair, rattle the tin Venetian blinds. “J, let’s pay attention. You want to learn, now, don’t you?” Well, no, she really didn’t, in RSP or anywhere else. “Does she work for you?” I asked her young teacher. “Never,” she replied.
But then things began to improve. J started to come to school with completed homework. It wasn’t done well but it was done. And in RSP my assistant and I began to notice that she was good in math. She seemed to enjoy it. She would confide in my assistant: her mother was about to have a baby, they lived in a two-bedroom apartment
