Too Young to Burn

"Hey, we have to meet for that girl from Panama.  Her mom's pissed.  She says her teacher is mean."
"Her teacher isn't mean."  I responded and kept running to my next class.

"Someone stole my bookbag!" Rafael informed me during morning tutorial.  

"How you going to turn in your homework?"  Jaime asked.

Rafael gestured toward Danny.  Danny pulled Rafael's homework folder from his book bag.  

"That was really nice of him to carry that for you."  I remarked.  

They put their headphones on and continued their work.  

I signed in to the online meeting with Ariel's mom.  I always want to think of her as the girl from Ipanema, even though she's from Panama.  I imagine her running on beaches in the bright sun, happy.  

"Wagner, you go first"  Ranier whispered to me.  

"Hey, it's good to see you again.  I'm Ariel's ESOL teacher, we met when you registered her.  Look, she's behind, but she's advancing.  She didn't know her alphabet when she got here, but now she does.  You told me they were online for a long time there and you know, kids here didn't do well with that either.  So, she's barely on a kindergarten level. There is a lot we all have to do."

"I bought her some stuff from School Box.  I'm working with her."  she responded.

"That's awesome."  I responded.

"It's going to take work at home and at school"

Rainier started whispering again.

YOUR TUTORIAL, she mouthed.

"I have a tutorial early in the morning."  I said.

"Ariel is welcome to come, we can do some extra work then."

"We have to put retention on the table."  Rainier interjected.

"She has to be reading by third grade.  We can revisit later, but it's important."

The homeroom teacher weighed in and everyone left satisfied.  

When we hung up, everyone sighed that "mean teacher" never even came up.  

"So, you'll pick up your breakfast and come on out to the trailer.  I'll be out there."

Ariel looked at me incredulously.

"COME AND MEET ME AT MY BUS!"  she said, eyes wide.

"Naw, it's okay.  I'll be in the trailer.  There are other kids that come out in the morning too, but....well, they are all boys and older than you..."  I said hesitantly.

Her eyes widened.

"CAN'T MURIEL COME!???"  she shrieked. 

"It'll be fine.  I'll be out there waiting for you."  I said with a smile.

I was running around the next morning before seven, catching up with a teacher that is going to be working with Danny.  After talking to her for a few minutes, I glanced at my watch.

"Shit,"  I said, "I have to run, he's going to be waiting for me."

I sprinted over to the cafeteria and saw Rafael and Danny heading for the doors with their trays.

"Hold on you guys, we have one more kid coming."  I said, scanning the cafeteria for Ariel.

"Be nice to her.  She's the only girl and she's younger than you."

Rafael pointed toward the outside.  There stood Ariel, alone in the dark in her little pink coat, staring at me with complete distrust and a little bit of laughter.  

"I AM SO SORRY!  All I tell are lies, Ariel, I'm sorry."

We made it to the trailer and everyone got to work.  I watched Rafael remove the poppit bracelet that he had bought from the school store and slide it toward Ariel.

"That's nice of you, Rafael, you know, to let her play with that."
"She can keep it." he responded and kept working.  

When it was time to leave, Rafael wordlessly handed Danny his folder to carry while he popped open his umbrella with his free hands and held it over both of them. 

And they all walked off to school.  

*Title, Sonny and the Sunsets

Not a Cloud in the Sky, Got the Sun in My Eyes

"So, who do you think would win in a fight, Marjorie Taylor Green or Lauren Boebert?"  I asked my brother in law.  Unfortunately, this thought had crossed my mind several times while watching the Republicans attempt to select a Speaker. 

"I mean, Taylor Greene has really meaty arms and she does Cross Fit, but....."  I continued.

"Definitely Lauren Boebert."  he answered.

"She's small and sneaky.  She'd bring some pointy thing into the fight that she wasn't supposed to have and poke your eyes out."  

"Yeah."  I said in agreement.

School resumed with a frenzy.  Because my school is on the bad list, we are having multiple meetings a week that take up our planning periods.  And, I am going into work at 6:45 in the morning because of the extra tutorial for Rafael and Jaime.  I wanted to add Jaime to the morning tutorial because his mom had asked for it, only to be told he wasn't eligible.  Well, now we had a new tutorial that he was definitely eligible for and I texted her to see if she could bring him in the mornings.  She agreed, as long as the tutorial was with me and not with another teacher.  I was flattered.  The first day of tutorial I walked up to the school in the dark and saw Jaime's dad's work truck, stacked with ladders, parked in front of the school to drop him off right on time.  My days are longer and really busy, but it's okay.  

I walked past the front office on the way to one of my classes and was frantically waved down by our registrar.  A couple with a little boy stood there with a stack of papers, trying to register their child.  They only spoke Spanish, so the registrar needed my help.  I looked at the transcripts and spoke to the parents.  Another child that had taken a long journey through various countries to arrive in the United States.  Strange dates that didn't add up, indicating gaps in his education.  He smiled at me shyly.  

Twenty-four hours later, multiple teachers were chasing me down, reciting the all familiar refrain:  "HE DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!!".  I worked with him and did a quick math assessment on him.  I got back with some of the other teachers.

"Yes.  His English is limited, but this is where he is supposed to be.   I'll add him to my morning tutorial to try to develop his English.  But...language is only part of the problem.  He knows how to add and subtract, but breaks down with double digit subtraction when he has to regroup.  He hasn't heard of division and multiplication.  I'm not sure how he is in other subjects."

Why other teachers hadn't thought of simply assessing his abilities in the principal content areas is a mystery.  I guess it's easier to just say he can't speak English and assume I will fix it.  

Early the next morning, I had all three boys in my trailer around 7:00am.  Danny came in dressed differently, wearing a green bomber jacket and multiple rosaries, as if every talisman he could muster would protect him from this new place.

"You look cool."  I told him.

"Thank you."  he answered, shy smile still glued on his face.  

Later that afternoon, I saw two little faces peering at me from the school bus window.  It was Rafael and Danny, seated together, waving frantically with huge smiles on their faces.  

I waved back and couldn't stop smiling myself.  

*Title, Top of the World, The Carpenters