Markert-Noticing Blog

Although this week has been a rather short week there was one issue that really stood out to me. This issue revolves around one of my special education boys in my classroom. This boy Sam* is diagnosed with ADHD and is given medication only when the parents decide to. He is a very intelligent, fun, loving boy that has a lot to offer his peers. The issue arose this week because I feel that his parents want Sam to be as “normal” as possible. They do not want to medicate him, they do not want him to have a full time aid, and they do not want him to be given any special treatment. This is fine because the parents’ wishes are always going to be the strongest. Although medication and a full time aid would benefit Sam it does not seem to be in the cards at this time. This is a very brief overview and skimming the surface of some of the other issues. However, today we brought the students to gym class. In the hour they were at gym we were informed that there was some difficulty with Sam. Sam did not listen to any instructions, ran around the gym when asked to sit down, and ultimately left the gym running through the halls of the school. Luckily at this time his aid (only for the last hour of the day) was in the gym class so there was supervision for the other students while they went to get Sam. This entire incident ended up with Sam in a total outburst of screaming and crying. Luckily, it was the end of the day.

When we spoke to Sam’s mom after school she informed us that the issue is Sam does not like gym or the gym teacher. Her solution for the problem is that on Tuesday Sam will just be picked up early and will not attend gym class. My MT handled this situation appropriately and we have not set anything in stone yet. My dilemma with the situation is when is helping your child detracting from their education and learning. I believe that making excuses and removing Sam from the situation will only teach him that if there is a problem or something you do not like you can simply leave. This is an issue because in life this is not the ultimate solution. The fine line between parents and education is one I am finding to be very tricky. There is no way you can tell a parent that their solution is wrong or not a great idea but at the same time you want to keep the students’ interests at heart. This is difficult to write about because there are so many instances but I guess my dilemma and question is how to breach or handle the fine line between parents and student and education? This is one case of this question but there are multiple students in my classroom that I feel similar ways about.