THE BILLY PROJECT
The Billy Story
Story Findings
We see Jen layout a few stories. First, there’s her personal experience with a child who was falling behind behaviorally in her classroom. Then Jen tries to grapple with Billy’s parent’s perspective and ignorance of issues she finds very apparent.
She goes on to tell another story about going to her boss, distressed about the difficulties she was experiencing in the classroom. Jen talks about a felt difficulty, where the story she was telling contradicted Billy's parent’s story, and the principal's story. I think this could be the spark of difference that reveals contradictions between image and narrative. All three of these groups are viewing a single child's behavior in different ways. But why? Are they seeing different behaviors, or are they understanding those behaviors to be different things?
Jen: In first grade, everyone is all over the place. So he did kind of come up on the radar, but no one brought him forward to CST (Child Study Team). When I had him he stuck out like a sore thumb. He was on the floor, he was spinning, he was looking at things, and could not focus. When I brought it up, his parents had no idea. They had an older child, so Billy was raised like an only child. They pushed him around in a stroller, and he was in first grade. It was really hard to talk to his parents because that is not really first-grade behavior. And they always had an excuse. “Well we just like our alone time together, he can’t keep up with us”. He definitely presented himself like he was on the spectrum. Definitely.
Me: How far did you end up getting with his evaluation that year?
Jen: Not very far. It was super hard. I remember talking about it with my team, and at the end of the year he had a para that came in. But I started my year with no support. I just remember going to the principal crying, and saying "I don’t understand this". It seems like you're just playing the “wait and see” game. “Let’s see if she can handle it, then we will help the kid”. It was so frustrating.
Laura: And that’s not fair to him either. I mean, he’s the one twirling around, not able to pay attention.