A Blue Mini-Van

I was driving down Magnolia, by the downtown library and I saw this kid in a blue mini-van waving to me, smiling, yelling "Look it's Mr. Greene." Then I recognized the kid.

One of the ways I've been making a living is substitute teaching. I was at an inner city school for three weeks. I was a teachers aid for some of it. One of my jobs was to keep an eye on this second time around kindergartner, it was the kid in the blue mini-van. He had headbutted his teacher a few days before I stepped in. His teacher is a young woman in her first year of teaching. I think the feeling was that a man might be a more intimidating figure, and that this kid would settle down. Nobody asked if I had any experience with kids. I worked on instincts, which I found were useless with medicated hyperactive kids.

The last week that I was at the school, the kids mom came into the classroom, right before school started. She said. "You must be Mr. Greene. My son says you're his best friend in the school." I looked over to the young teacher. She was grinning, probably thinking back to when the kid threw a stack of bowls at me, or the pencils or pulled the map down over my head, or maybe the many times he told us that he hated us. Usually the I hate you was balanced with you're my friend a little later or earlier. He also liked to growl at me and everyone else.

The day after his mother visited, he went into the bathroom and wouldn't come out and go to music class. I was asked to stand outside the bathroom door until the behavioral specialist came. The behavioral specialist came and ordered the kid out of the bathroom. The kid was crying and hit me in the chest. It didn't hurt, he's five, but he was immediatley suspended.

A couple of days later his mother was walking him into school, holding his hand. He had just finished his suspension. They both looked towards me walking down the hall. His mother said to him, "Tell Mr. Greene you're sorry."

The kid looked down at the ground and said very quietly. "Sorry Mr. Greene." Then he saw one his friends from class and yelled his name. They hugged each other celebrating the kids return.