A short story (true life)

I got a call from the high school. Kubota was "misbehaving" in art class and the teacher need to have a conference with one of his parents.

Since I was working third-shift and Mrs ERJ was working day-shift, I got the assignment.

I walked into the room. Kubota was sitting there with the art teacher and the student-teacher who she was "mentoring". Kubota looked uncomfortable.

The art teacher did the usual introductory spiel but as she did it she kept picking hard-candies out of a tray in front of her and very fastidiously unwrapped them and popped them into her mouth. Her fingers gave me the distinct impression of a spider daintily picking its way across a spider web on the way to wrap up a newly caught fly.

The impression was hammered home, looking at her body. She had the spindly arms and legs and grotesquely rounded trunk of a very, very heavy drinker. Her voice and diction were very precise and picky-sounding.

Then she turned the meeting over to her student teacher.

The crux of her complaint was that Kubota blurted out answers in class.

Digging a little deeper, she never called on Kubota in class because he didn't follow the instructions she had given the class on the proper way to raise one's hand in class and she refused to call on people who didn't follow directions.

My curiosity got the better of me, I asked "What is the proper way to raise one's hand to get your attention?"

The student teacher demonstrated. "The student is required to hold their upper arm parallel to the floor and to hold their fore-arms perfectly vertical. They are to track my as I walk around the classroom by having their palms facing me."

----"Oh, and they are to be perfectly silent while they do this because I lecture them right up until I select a student to answer."

I sagely nodded my head. "We can end the meeting right now. You made it abundantly clear that we have a problem. I guarantee that I will address it."

On the way home I bought Kubota a McDonald Value Meal. He did a great job letting the teachers yack-away and dig their own holes. I commended him for keeping his mouth shut when it would only make outcomes worse.

That was the extent of my "addressing" the issue.

I pretty much had their number thirty seconds into the "conference". I think the mentoring teacher just wanted to give the student teacher "exposure" to student-parent conferences.