Read Online Lost at School by Ross W. Greene - Free Book Online Page B

know.”
    Mrs. Franco walked into the room. “Tough day. What happened?”
    “Which part? The blowing up, the telling Taylor he was going to kill her, or Mr. Middleton getting his jaw hurt?”
    Mrs. Franco winced sympathetically.
    Mrs. Woods picked up the superintendent’s memo from her desk. “Have you seen this? Here we are, trying to keep our heads above water with all these kids who need our attention, and we’re constantly being reminded that every kid needs to get over the same bar before the school year’s out. Like it’s a bunch of robots we’re teaching. Like I’m some sort of magician.”
    “You’ve had a tough day,” said Mrs. Franco. “But look at the bright side.”
    “What bright side?”
    “It’s Friday. And Joey won’t be in your class for the next five days.”
    * *  *
    Mrs. Woods’ husband could always tell when she’d had a bad day at school. Normally, when he arrived home from work, she’d be listening to classical music and looking over her students’ work. On bad days the house was silent. He found her in the backyard watering annuals that had just suffered through the first frost.
    “Looks like those flowers are done for,” he said.
    “What makes you say that?” she snapped.
    “Just that the frost seems to have got to ’em,” he said.
    Mrs. Woods felt her eyes stinging. “They’ll be fine.”
    “Tough day at school?”
    “You could say that.”
    “Want to talk about it?”
    “I want to water my dead flowers a little longer.”
    “Want me to make dinner tonight?”
    “That would be nice.”
    Mr. and Mrs. Woods had raised a son and daughter together, both well-behaved, both good students, both now in college. His wife’s increasing unhappiness and frustration at work were at odds with Mr. Woods’ vision of what should now be their “easy years.” As he began preparing dinner, he reminded himself not to give his wife advice about how to run her classroom. Mrs. Woods always grew impatient when she tried to explain to her husband that she couldn’t run her classroom like he ran his hardware store.
    Mrs. Woods came in from the backyard. “Am I losing my mind, or did I just spend twenty minutes watering dead flowers?”
    “You’re definitely losing your mind. So what happened at school today?”
    “I had an ugly scene in my classroom. One of my kids lost it, Mr. Middleton got hit in the jaw, another of my kids got threatened, the kid who lost it ran out of the school and got suspended for five days …”
    “Geez,” said Mr. Woods. “Middleton got hit in the jaw? Why’d the kid go nuts?”
    “I asked him to come up to my desk because he wasn’t doing his work.”
    “Middleton OK?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t see him after school.”
    Mr. Woods’ eyes narrowed as he looked at his wife. “You OK?”
    “Well, I didn’t get hit in the jaw, but the whole thing was pretty upsetting.”
    “The kid went nuts because you asked him to come up to your desk? What’s the matter with him?”
    “I don’t know. I mean … that’s probably the most upsetting part. I don’t know what’s the matter with him. I couldn’t believe what was happening in my classroom.”
    “So the kid got what he had coming to him,” said Mr. Woods. “I guess he’s going to learn that you don’t go nuts in Betty Galvin’s school.”
    “Betty Galvin isn’t going to have the kid in her classroom when he comes back from being suspended.”
    “Maybe”—Mr. Woods could feel himself slipping perilously into advice-giving mode—“Maybe it’s time for you to start thinking about …”
    “This is exactly why I don’t like to tell you what happens in my classroom! If you start with that hardware store speech again I will leave!”
    Mr. Woods recovered. “OK, OK, no hardware store speech. But I hate to see you upset like this. It’s just not worth it.”
    “It is worth it! I like teaching!” said Mrs. Woods. “Well, I used to like teaching. But I’m not the type to run