Chapter 28

In this chapter Torey discusses some of the progress of her students. Lori is actually excelling in all of her subjects (besides reading and writing of course). She tries to give Lori as many activities that don't involve reading as possible. When something requires reading, Tomaso will do the reading or writing for Lori, and Lori will tell him what to write.

Tomaso is also making progress. He no longer uses vulgar language (or at least almost none). He is able to control his temper much better and does not become as quickly frustrated with tasks as he used to. He still talks about his father as though he is alive, but it is becoming less and less. As far as reading goes, he has learned 18 months of reading skills in 6 months. Math is still somewhat of a struggle. He understands basic concepts but gets confused when he is faced with word problems, as he is not sure how the words related to the equations he is used to.

As a math TA this is something that I see a lot (having trouble taking information from word problems to set up equations). I think that so many teachers throughout the years try to ignore a lot of the word problems (at least in my schools). Many of the teachers would assign them as extra credit, and proclaim them to be more difficult which immediately discouraged the students from ever wanting to solve them. The key is really to break the problem up step by step, pulling out tiny bits of information as you read along.

Claudia missed a full week of school, and when Torey tried to get a hold of her family no one would answer. When Claudia returned the next week she looked ill, but went to work as usual. Claudia informed Torey that she started seeing a psychiatrist and that she was happy about it. Torey was happy to hear this but was still worried as something seemed off. When Claudia told her more about the psychiatrist she was seeing and how her parents decided to let her talk to someone, she casually revealed to Torey that she had tried to kill herself the weekend before. I thought this was interesting because through the whole book Torey had talked about her worries about Claudia and how she was sure she was suffering from some sort of depression (of course, this is all written in hindsight, so who knows how many of the signs she actually noticed at the time, but still).

It makes me really sad to know that there are CHILDREN who try to commit suicide. Although this is a tragedy no matter the age, it really bothers me that a child, whose life is supposed to be simple and care-free, could hate the world or themselves so much that they don't feel like they can go on any longer.