The Worst Kid In The Math Academy

     Around about 20 years ago I volunteered as a math tutor in a middle school in a poor area  of Columbus.  I was one of a group of math volunteers who worked under a devoted teacher - truly, I found all the teachers at this school to be so caring and devoted to their students that to this day it makes my blood boil when politicians blame teachers for poor results among students in schools in impoverished districts, but that's another subject altogether - anyway, I worked under this wonderful teacher whom I respected and very much liked except for the fact that she always gave me the worst of the worst-behaved students to work with because, supposedly, I was so patient and kind.
     In truth, though, I believe it wasn't so much that I was patient and kind as that I was kind of meek and long-suffering, sort of like the the wimpy teacher in the tough school played by Charlie Day in the movie "Fist Fight" (which I thought was a great movie, by the way).

     Anyway,  the principal of the school at which I worked came up with an idea for a special supplementary tutoring program called The Math Academy which met  after school once a week and on Saturday mornings for a term of 8 weeks. The teacher whom I volunteered under was to be program's moderator, and I also volunteered to be a Math Academy tutor.  All the school's students were invited to participate in The Math Academy and for those students who attended every class there would be a special recognition ceremony at the end.  
     The moderator of The Math Academy gave me two students to work with, two 6th-grade girls, with the warning that one of the girls was the worst-behaved student in the school. Yet there was a feeling of optimism among the staff because the girl, the least likely of students, wanted to be part of The Math Academy.
      The girl turned out to be a too-fun-loving kid whose problem was that she always needed to be the center of attention.  Much to the delight of those students who enjoyed her antics and fed her bad behavior by their laughter and acknowledgement, she was non-stop disruptive and teased, tormented, or otherwise distracted the children sitting around her, sort of like a female version of Jonah, the disruptive middle-schooler in the TV series "Summer Heights High."

     I soon learned that part of this child's behavior problem was that she had a learning disability.  She didn't understand 6th grade math, was bored and confused by it, and so kept herself amused and gained a sort of bad-girl status among her classmates and teachers, a status she would never have been capable of attaining from academic achievement.
     In truth The Math Academy was a waste of time for this student, who was in dire need of  a different, more serious kind of intervention.  She certainly wasn't capable of doing the work required for The Math Academy and her presence was detrimental to the rest of the class.  BUT...she did  show up for every Math Academy class, and for this she was honored at the awards assembly at the end of the 8-week term.  During the assembly the principal called the girl up to the stage and praised her for meeting his personal challenge to her:  to participate in the The Math Academy with 100% attendance. This she had accomplished - to the surprise of everyone - and the principal  was proud of her, the teachers were proud of her, the whole school was proud of her, and she certainly looked proud of herself and happy as could be as she received an award, a special T-shirt, and a standing ovation from the school. And though I'd been at my wits' end trying to control this wild child, still indubitably the worst kid in the school, I, too, stood and applauded for her shining moment of under- achievement.
       The other night I found myself thinking of that shining moment of my little Math Academy student from all those years ago as I watched Donald Trump receive voluminous praise for his mediocre but surprising  accomplishment of standing  before Congress and reading a speech from a teleprompter in a civil tone of voice without indulging in his usual misbehavior.  The content of his speech may have been the same garbage as we're used to receiving from the current occupant of The White House, but this time it was whip-cream-covered garbage, and it was nicely delivered,  the delivery looming larger for some than the content, anyway.
    But to those out there who are cheering Donald Trump for his shining 90 minutes of under-achievement, don't be too deflated when he goes back to the usual antics of the worst kid in the middle school.