“Beautiful child was not the epithet I would have given Venus, now that I had the chance to look at her up close. She was neither clean not well cared for.” Torey Hayden wrote this book based on real-life events of the students that were in her classroom. Torey teaches special needs children, and its fair to say that this bunch of kids kept her hands full. Her class had five full times students Billy, Jesse, Shane, Zane, and Venus. At first, most of her struggles revolved around the boys physically attacking one another, then someone getting to close to Venus and her going as Billy would say “psycho.” Venus doesn’t talk or move on her own the only time she does is when she attacks another kid. Torey never gives up on any of her students, especially Venus. Torey spends extra time with her, reading books together, dancing around the classroom. Then when she starts to worry about Venus, she makes home visits. Torey suspects more is at play, and still, she never gives up on this little girl that others just shoved to the side.
Being a special needs teacher must be hard. I admire the way she handles her “chipmunks” and keeps her classroom together even if its in chaos. She reminds me of a lot of my Aunt Candie, who works as a special education teacher. I’ve heard of stories of students having meltdowns and throwing chairs and desk in her classroom. Yet my Aunt is amazing. She’s always so levelheaded but also doesn’t take crap from anyone. This book is encouraging for future educators even gave me a few ideas for when I become a teacher one day myself.
The title of the book shows an interaction between a student and teacher. I like the way you describe about the book, and how you made a connection between the story and what your aunt had experienced. You made a great post this week. Thank you for sharing your post.
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