Deanna was moved in one of her classrooms to the back. Most teachers move the students around at the beginning of each report card period. Unfortunately, since Deanna's quiet, she got sent to the back of the room. There was only one other child put in the back - a boy who was out sick for one week, then at the wedding of his uncle in another state for one week. She was all alone.
I asked her how things were going about a week into the new seating assignment.
"Quiet," she responded. I'll just bet. No one around her, no talking between friends over top of her head. Just her, by herself, in the back of the room.
The boy who was assigned next to her returned to school last week. About the middle of the week, I asked Deanna how things were going. He, also, is a quiet student which is probably why the teacher assigned him to the rear of the classroom as well as Deanna.
"Well," she began, "he always does everything so-and-so (the name has been withheld to protect the innocent) says. Today, she told him to do something and he immediately did it. So I called him a 'so-and-so (insert girl's name) droid'!"
My eyes bugged out of my head.
"YOU DID WHAT?" I shouted. "What did he say?"
"He hung his head for a few minutes and then said, 'Am I really a 'so-and-so droid'? I said, 'Yes, you are. You do everything she says.'"
"What happened," I asked, a little breathless.
"He didn't talk for the rest of the day."
Poor child. He's quiet, anyway, and that obviously shook him up.
Several days later, I asked Deanna again about the boy.
"He hasn't spoken since then," she said.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. The only hope of Deanna having someone with which she could chat, and she alienated him - rather swiftly.
I don't know who I should feel sorrier for - Deanna or the boy.
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