Mrs. Jahner

I have been wanting to go to the girls' school to help out in Kaya's classroom on one of my (few and far between) days off. Have I mentioned how much we ADORE Mykaya's teacher, Mrs. Jahner? Nope, don't think I have. There is no way I could ever put into words how amazing she is. She is the most patient, kind, loving, genuinely sweet person I have ever met and somehow we got the amazing fortune of crossing paths with her! She has been one of the people I look forward to talking to each day (yep, I said EVERY day!) since we moved here to ol' Bismarck.  We email our thoughts, feedback, plans and general classroom stuff back and forth several times a day. How she has the time to do this, while teaching a class of 22 seven-year-olds is beyond me. But she takes the time, because I think she knows how much it means to me.

Aside from that, Mykaya has latched onto her like a second mother. She doesn't bond with very many people due to her social deficits, especially teachers, mostly because of her experience with some fairly incompassionate ones she's had in the past. Her last 2nd grade teacher actually told me she thought Mykaya was manipulative (!) and "knows how to get the adults in her life to do everything for her." Do you know what the saddest part about that is? Until I met Mrs. Jahner and started going through this whole process, a tiny part of me believed her. I have this whole guilt thing where I think that somehow, everything I have done has been wrong and I have somehow caused her to be the way she is. So I thought for a while about how maybe I do do too much for her. Maybe I need to step back and make her try harder. Yeah, all that does is lead to more frustration, tears, anger, defiance and GUILT. She really really really wants to be able to do things on her own, she just can't. Yes, I realize this now.

I plan to spend as much time as I can helping out in the classroom, so I can get a feel for what she's excelling at, how Mrs. Jahner succeeds in helping her (so I can model that at home for homework time), and also to pay Mrs. Jahner back for all she's done for me.

Hey, it saves her from emailing me too, because I'll be right there with her!

With love,
The Schulz's