He’s a behavioral problem for sure. He talks and talks. Lectures slide off his back like water off that proverbial duck. But today I was able to sit with C. and help him with his math (heroic of me considering how sick he seemed, sniff, sniff, sniff) and C. was so happy. He’s a new arrival from another country and hopelessly lost. Kids like this need intensive tutoring. I wish we had the staff and money to provide C. with what he needs.

But in the meantime, I will sit with C. whenever possible and do what I can. He will have to do an enormous amount of work, especially since he arrived in this country in high school. I will show him that I care, that he is not adrift in this universe of incomprehensible conversations and inexplicable expectations.