Guppies, Part 2

Yesterday was a first for me. I kept C. after class for talking too much. He didn't seem to be responding to my numerous requests to "turn around...stop talking...pay attention...", so I thought, perhaps, a little visit after class with me might do the trick. At the suggestion of another teacher, I also emailed his mom to tell her that I talked with C. after class about his disruption problem. (Side note: email could be both the best and worst thing ever for confrontation avoid teachers like myself).

When I open my email today, there is a message from C.'s mom. She seemed nice overall. Not really taking my side. Not really taking C.'s side. A bit Switzerland-ish, really. The interesting thing was this: C. seems to have convinced her that his talking problem has to do with his tablemate (who is a talker, I must admit, but they don't really talk to each other that much. In fact, she saves his booty quite often when he hasn't been paying attention) and his left-handedness. Yes, you read correctly. His lefthandedness.

According to mom, C.'s body positioning is affected by his left-handedness, which causes him to be turned towards other people more. At lesat that's what I think she was getting at. The email was rather short, so maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

I almost want to write her back and to say, "Thank you for the response. I will be awarding C. 5 extra credit points on his book report project for creating such a creative response to your inquiry about his talking and for presenting it in what, apparently, was a very convincing matter." Seriously, did she really fall for that?