Managing
my thoughts & resulting emotions has been quite difficult. My chemical make-up is such that I give little time to allow my brain to
process information before reacting. I
know in my heart that all energy
should be processed into positive emotions in order to get a positive result
but I have trouble with this one. I have so much energy flowing through my body
that it literally shakes while processing every thought into an emotion. Before
my brain interjects my body & mouth are already reacting. An
example of channeling my energy into the wrong emotion was today’s “snap” at
Angela using energy gained from my son’s explanation of his bad day. See note below:
Mr. Pruitt,
The purpose of my note to you today is to make you aware of
a family crisis that could impact the ability of my stepson, Kyle, to
fully concentrate on his work. Kyle’s
mother, Angela, recently underwent a surgical procedure in which a full
hysterectomy was performed along with the removal of a malignant mass. The diagnosis delivered to our family
yesterday is that Angela has stage 3A ovarian cancer which will require
eighteen treatments of chemotherapy over the next 6 months. While my wife and I are very confident that
the treatments will eradicate the cancer we are concerned that the diagnosis
and stress associated with the treatment could potentially impact Kyle’s
ability to perform in school.
While we understand that it is important to maintain consistent
expectations as a class in whole I am asking that the teachers be sensitive to
Kyle’s home situation when evaluating his performance as an individual. Today,
for example, after returning to school from a sick day, Kyle did not bring in a binder for his
Bio-tech class resulting in a deduction of 34 formative points. Failure to meet this requirement is not
consistent with Kyle’s normal behavior and I’m sure that if his teacher, who I’ve
copied on this note to you, were aware of his home situation would have been
more compassionate. I feel, in this
instance, some consideration should be given to allow him to have a second
opportunity to report to school with the binder with only half credit being
given.
Kyle is a hardworking, sensitive child who thrives on
proving himself through excellence of work.
Today, when I picked him up and saw tears running down his cheeks my
heart was broken. As he began to explain
the reasons for his sadness the grief that I felt turned to anger. The first event evoking Kyle’s dismay was the
interaction with his bio tech teacher and the second was a routine dress code
check that occurred at lunch time today which resulted in a code
violation. I am a Salesianum High School
graduate so I fully understand dress code requirements however what concerns me
most about today’s “check” is that the piece of clothing in question has been
worn each and every school day without controversy. At Salesianum dress code is clear &
concise and checks are not random or inconsistent. I’m certain that the clothing did not meet
the specific criteria set by the school however being as though it is a coat
and the temperature is well below normal again I think it could have been
overlooked.
My expectation from you is that either you or one of your
staff will have a discussion with each of Kyle teachers providing enough
information that will allow them to be aware of his special needs. Also I would expect that you provide some
confirmation of receipt of this note to you either by email reply or phone call.
Please feel free to contact me at home
302-xxx-xxxx or on my cell 302-xxx-xxxx.
Sincerely,
David M. Bursler
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