Amazing Em

photo by Bethan (link below post)

I saw a picture of some graffiti the other day while I was perusing the interwebs. It said:

 "When I do right, they never remember. When I do wrong, they never forget." 

It made me think. I realized that I haven't mentioned Em, my other student, as much on this blog, and I'll tell you why;




She is an absolute gem. She comes to our sessions having done any homework I've given her, and works hard. She's a kind, good natured kid who has trouble with math and finds school kinda boring- pretty standard issue as far as kids go. All in all, behaviourally, she doesn't actually give me any grief. And I'm thinking I should give her her due airtime on this blog, so as not to "forget."

If you haven't read my other articles, then you might not know, based on the above description, why Em is having sessions with me and not just in regular school. In brief, she was raped about and month and half before the end of the school year and found it too difficult to go back to a school filled with staring eyes and whispers. She started falling way behind on her work and since I'm both tutoring AND have experience counselling sexually abused women, the Counselor thought we'd be a good match. In the month I've worked with her, she's made reference to the assault a couple times but hasn't ever outright talked about it. Which, I figure, is fine. Maybe our sessions are a little bit of reassurance that not everyone who knows what has happened to her wants to drill her about it... that some semblance of normalcy after rape is possible. Still, I hope that she's coping and getting counselling... I hope she's on the road to being ok. It's not my job to dredge it out of her though, and I have to remember that.

Anyhow, this past week she wrote her final exams. We find out on the 29th whether or not she passed them and can move on to tenth grade and a fresh start, or if she failed them and needs to do some summer school. If the latter is true, then I'll likely be seeing more of Em, and you'll be hearing more about her. If the former, and I sincerely hope for the former, then it will be fair well and a well-deserved summer for her. I'll be keeping you posted either way.

And as for Paris, my other student, well she and I are meeting up tomorrow. She's had over a week to tackle some math on her own, but has already bbm'd me to tell me that she "doesn't get it. Doesn't get any of it." That's fine. It just means that tomorrow is all about the basics, all about starting to fill in the gaps in her knowledge that are holding her back. As for filling in the gaps in her attitude... well, that's a work in progress :)

All in all though, today was a great day. Came back from an over night trip with the boyfriend to go and see his dad and meet some more of his warm and self-admittedly WASP-y family. They are an absolute treat, the kind of family that gushes over you when you arrive, gushes at random intervals throughout the conversation, then gushes while you leave. It's quite flattering, as you can imagine, if a touch overwhelming at first. Adoring the boyfriend's family and vice versa is very, very handy.

Anyhoo, it's back to the real world for me (he lives out of town) and that means back to A) studying for the MCAT B) Working part-time in catering as a server (oh joy of joys) and, of course, C) tutoring and mentoring at InnerCity High.

Til next time!
(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4616362274/sizes/m/in/photostream/)