Re: More on "2 Directions"
Posted by Student John on April 01, 2002 at 15:02:18:

In Reply to: Re: More on "2 Directions" posted by Sally on April 01, 2002 at 00:49:04:

Hi, Sally.
Wow, what a great and open response. I value your offer to send me
relevant materials. Rather than lessons of another, even ones you
value, I wonder how you would feel about more direct exchanges? I’d
like to have more direct exchanges with you.
I couldn’t agree with you more about our little “aliens”. Perhaps
they are so alien because of their openness and their ability to
reflect back. When I wound Johnny with some of my shenanigans, I
crumple over when I awaken to what I’ve done. Hitting a child with
a “brick” is not a nice thing to do. He got suspended from school last
week for a week and is home this week for spring break so I’m getting
in a lot of practice. One of the things I noticed with him was that I
was letting him get away with a lot of disrespectful behavior
because “I felt sorry for him” and was HURT by not getting the respect
I deserve. Sound like the Dictator? When I woke up to what I was
doing last week, I began to firmly reflect back his disrespect and
note that neither did I deserve it nor was it acceptable. I wouldn’t
let him reject me, the corollary is that neither did I reject him! He
has a similar behavior pattern at school. They have met with his
psychologist and have a plan to reward his respectful and non-
disruptive behavior rather than punish him when he returns to school
on the 8th. I’m hopeful.
When I have angry thoughts, it not always easy for me to
figure out what’s going on. I was angry with Coach (or was I jealous
of the attention Deirdre was getting) for “pushing me to the back of
the bus” by putting on hold his response to me and Eddie while he
responded to Deirdre and took a clearly well-deserved break.
Hi, Deirdre. I’m wondering how you’re feeling about Coach’s
analysis of your anger as expressed in that one line to him about
being pushed to the back of the bus?
I’ve been trying to post this message for several hours now but I
suspect Brent is doing some site maintenance or transferring last
semester to archives and I can’t access the Classroom. I'll get this
out to you when I can. Student John

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