True Confessions

I search for words to come across to a freshman student who has demanded full individualized instruction, a repeat private performance, right after I have just spent an entire hour explaining elements of the report.

I talked about it last Friday as well, I say.

I was not here last Friday, she says. Isn't it your duty to explain this to me? She demands.

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What follows is contentious, so lets fast forward, as I propose to her a summary of her problem...........................

Maybe classroom instruction is not for you, I say, maybe you really need one on one instruction, I offer, mindful of tactful feedback.

I do! she lights up at my grasp of her needs, reveals her high school frustrations, and there we are, swaying, on the rickety platform of understanding I have makeshifted for me and her.

Look, Marcie, I say, by way of pouring oil on uneven waters, aiming to introduce a suggestion by way of affirmation, "You are a smart person---"

I know!, she interrupts, fierce with the conviction of a nineteen year old:

I am the smartest person I know!