Six Word Saturday

I got no attitude problem - oops.


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I don't just teach math.

I try to teach (uncomfortable but relevant) things that will help them in life.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested to Diana that she was smart enough and capable enough to accomplish great things but that she has developed an attitude that will sabotage anything she attempts. She took exception to this and - well - she took exception to this.

I shouldn't have said it - I was tired of the way I was being treated in my class.

This week we have both tried harder with each other.

Thursday she asked a question and I answered it with great thought. While I was in mid sentence (and obviously in mid sentence as the thought was not complete) she turned, talked to a friend and walked off, leaving me standing there.

But, and this may be hard to fathom, I am sure Diana thought she wasn't being rude. She wasn't angry. She had heard what she needed to know and dismissed me by walking off. And that is what I mean by attitude.

At some point Diana will ask other questions and my answers will not be snippy but they will not be any longer than I can get away with, lest she be bored.

Another student asked a question, and the immediate answer is no. But I knew what the student wants and (while it falls outside the rules) it should be possible. I told him that I had his back and would keep pushing the people who could make it possible. And we have had 3 or 4 conversations, answering his question, pursuing the answer.

Some of what I said was not of intense interest to that student, but you or I would be incapable of determining which parts, due to the intense attention to the conversation.

Which student will I go out of my way for?

Had the Diana asked me the question the second one did, the answer would be "no" and no more. Because that is the immediate answer.

I wonder how often I offend someone inadvertently as Diana did me?

Diana would assume I am discriminating against her because she is ________ (fill in the blank with whatever reason you want: race, color, creed, attributes). And I am discriminating against her. Because of the attitude she thinks she does not have.