Mark, Please Sit Down

[Editor’s note: MsB is the pseudonym for a third-year high school English teacher in Brooklyn.]

If I had a nickel for every time I told Mark to sit down I could retire tomorrow. We all have a student like Mark. That one student who doesn’t listen, and can’t sit still.

After talking to parents and counselors about Mark, I was finally informed that Mark has ADD. Clearly, then it is not his fault that he can’t sit still and I should do things in class to help him channel that productively. However, no one can seem to tell me what actual techniques can help. I was never trained on how to teach students with ADD or any other social issues. I know each student learns differently and I can differentiate instruction for that, but what do you do for those one or two kids that have no control?

Aside from Mark, many of my other students have IEP charts that point to a number of issues; social anxiety, speech impediments, hearing problems, abuse at home, and the list goes on and on. Since I am a regular Ed teacher, I was never trained in these issues. I have no idea how to help someone with ADD, besides letting him be my monitor and erase the blackboard and letting him give out papers. I am not trained to help these students, and I feel like I am not doing them justice.

When it comes down to it, I have 35 students in my class. When Mark is standing up and not listening, and the 34 other students talk because they see Mark distracting me, it’s frustrating. And who do I take the frustration out on, poor Mark. I am fully aware that I have a tendency to yell at the same kids who I think are the root of the issues in my classroom, but yelling is the only thing I know how to do when all else fails.

So then the question becomes, why aren’t teachers mandated to take classes on helping students with ADD and other issues? It is not just a guidance counselor or special ed teacher issue anymore. Everyday I try something new, and some things work and others don’t. Mark gets a lot of my attention during class and the other kids see that. When Mark is on his medication, he is comatose. These are two very opposite extremes. He’s either crazy, or completely unable to stay awake. There is no middle ground for Mark.

Inclusion has been the word of the day for a couple of years now. I feel like every time the word is mentioned, Pee Wee Herman is going to come out and instruct us to “scream real loud” and all these bells and whistles are going to go off. Theoretically, I can see the benefits to inclusion. However, it seems to me that they forgot one major aspect in designing the inclusion program: training regular ed teachers in special education issues. They, (and who ‘they’ are, I don’t really know. I usually picture a room full of men in nice suits and cigars sitting around a large table in some penthouse up in Albany), are throwing kids into regular classrooms and watching them drown. (Perhaps they don’t want to get their nice suits wet).

I would love some formal training in all the issues I am going to see. Train me as a guidance counselor … Please! Train me as a special education teacher. Teachers have many hats in the classroom. Sometimes I’m a friend, or a parent. Other times I’m a guidance counselor, or a social worker. There are times where I’m a comedian, an actress, a motivational speaker, or a babysitter. Never just a teacher.

All I can do is keep trying to help Mark and the rest of my students with all their different abilities and wait for the one day where a little light bulb will go off in their heads and they will get it. Until that day, I can yell less, and let Mark use his pens to drum on his desk all day.

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