aid

First Real Experience with an Aid: Camp JumpStart

The summer before middle school started, I did manage to attend an academic-like summer camp, except it was more of a fun “ease your anxiety about middle school” experience than an accelerated and rigorous summer school. Basically at this camp, called Camp JumpStart, students would attend a few periods of classes each day for three weeks to simulate the real middle school experience. And because the goal was to create an identical environment, the school felt the need to…get me an aid.

In my head, I was appalled by the idea, but clearly, I had no choice.

To my aid’s credit, she actually did listen to the request of “please hire someone who won’t be my personal tick”. On the first few days of Camp JumpStart, I literally had no idea who my aid was. Because she didn’t introduce herself as “Kristie’s very own aid”, I thought she was an assistant teacher that just so happened to be in each of three classes. She didn’t follow me to snack time or hover over me when I was at my locker (thank god). At time, I even forgot that I had an aid. If having an aid was like this, I thought, I could manage.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last for long.

By the end of the first week, as we started getting handouts that needed to be enlarged, I finally figured out who my aid was. Also by the end of the first week, my good two shoes façade began to fade, and I began acting more like the unruly child I was. I was used to doing whatever I wanted, even if it meant breaking a few minor rules, as long as the teacher didn’t notice. But when you have a personal aid to watch over you all day, it becomes quite difficult to fly under the radar. One day, we were each given skittles as a part of a science lesson. We were told not to eat them until the end, but of course, being the hungry animal I am, I didn’t listen. When the teacher turned her back on the class I quickly sneaked one, just one into my mouth, without anyone noticing. Well at least, that’s what I thought. A few seconds later, my aid swoop in on me and condemns me for eating the skittle, giving me a nice long speech about following rules and how I would have earned myself a detention if this happened during the school year and crap. I wasn’t angry because she had caught me breaking the rules, because I knew I wasn’t supposed to eat. But what literally drove me insane beyond belief is how just about everyone else in the class also ate a skittle or two as well, and no one else was caught. I’m pretty sure the teacher saw a few some of the not so discrete people, but didn’t really care. Because I had an aid though, I had to follow every single rule.

The next clash with my aid came at the Liberty Science Center, one of the field trip destinations at our time in Camp Jump Start. The campers were split into a few different groups, but with my luck, I had no friends in my group and was bored out of my mind for the first half ot he day. I figure the groups were pretty large and no one would notice if I snuck into he other group instead- I mean, I did that all the time in elementary school no problem. So that’s what I did after lunch. Yeah, not smart; I should have figured that because a had woman whose job was to follow me around on this particular day, she would have freaked out if I went missing.

And freak out she did. She sent the whole group on a half an hour-long hunt for me and when finally found me hanging out in some tunnel, she flipped out. I was dragged outside and was told that I had to stay within her sights at all times. I think its fair to say that after that day, she made me feel like a prisoner and I hated her for that.

I think the reason why I struggled so much with having an aid was because I wasn’t used to following the all the rules. I was always on the more wild side; I never did anything too outrageous, but I did have a tendency to push the boundaries. Personally, I felt it was so unfair that I was forced to be a bored goody two shoes while my friends were having a blast and exploring “dangerous” waters. I literally felt like I had a parent with me in summer school: a place where I should have been allowed to be a kid.

TIP: In hindsight, my Camp JumpStart aid did exactly what her job called for. I think that at the time, I was just not accustomed to being watched so carefully (even at home, my parents are on the chill side). Experiencing an aid for the first time is always going to be an adjustment, and it’s very important that you are patient and communicate with your aid. Now, I personally feel that it is the teacher’s job, not the aid’s, to call out students for bad conduct, like eating a skittle, unless the situation involves a serious issue, such as cheating, stealing, or disappearing (yes, my aid was right to yell at me at the museum). If your aid makes you comfortable in any way, it is crucial that you sit down and bring your issues up to her in a polite manner, as she or he may have no idea that they are doing something that bothers you if you don’t speak up. Remember, a student’s relationship with the aid depends on the efforts of both people and it is ultimately up to you to make the partnership work.

Having an Aid for the Day

As the last few months of elementary school came about, I heard talk of the idea of getting an aid for me in middle school. When I say heard, I mean my parents tried to have a mature discussion with me about it, but the minute I heard “Kristie” and “aid” in the same sentence, I left the table. I think my parents got the point: NO AID FOR KRISTIE. But they ended up requesting one for next year anyways.

I was very reluctant to comply, but gave in when I realized that I wasn’t interested in rolling around a huge CCTV around the school. I figured I’d also need someone to enlarge my papers and tell me what’s on the board if I didn’t want to drop out of school (I didn’t have a lynx at the time and could barely use the CCTV).

One day in fifth grade, I’m going about my usual routine and working on the math workbook when in comes a lady. She grabs a chair and plops right next to me. Confused, I glance at my teacher for reassurance, and she tells me that since I was getting an aid next year, the school wanted me to experience life with an aid for one day, to see if I really needed one or not. Right off the bat, this threw me off my game, as I found it impossible to concentrate when someone was watching my every move. Her face was only a few inches from mine, and her piercing eyes stared unblinkingly at my workbook, following my every pencil stroke. So obviously, as I was uncomfortable to say the least, I got a problem wrong. And just as I was about to fix it, my day aid slowly moves her eyes to penetrate my face and shoves a finger on the incorrect answer.

I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never wanted a day to go by faster.

The scariest part of this whole aid experience was that she pretty much didn’t say a single word to me the whole entire day. When I asked for an aid that didn’t talk to me, I didn’t mean it literally…

But on the bright side, the experience made me realize that I did need an aid. For the whole year, my fifth grade teacher would enlarge all my papers and make the screen extra large for me. I was lucky enough that in this classroom, the front row was right up against the screen, so I could see the board and take my own notes. But on this particular day, my teacher didn’t give  me special treatment, and I needed my aid to enlarge the handouts and write down the homework that was written in green instead of the usual black. Hence, I realized that in middle school, my teachers wouldn’t go out of their way to accommodate me anymore, and not the classrooms would have an ideal seating arrangement. Coupled with the fact that because we changed classes in middle school, I would need someone to help me carry all my enlarged textbooks and equipment, an aid was something I now knew that was unavoidable for my future.

Did I finally accept that I needed an aid? Yes. But did I like it? No.

TIP: Having me test out how things were like with an aid for one day before getting me one full time was a very smart decision. This gives the student a taste of what having an aid will be like, and allows them to see what works and what doesn’t work. For example, if the student spends a day with an aid that is quieter and leaves the kid alone, and realizes that he or she needs someone who is more involved, this can be taken into consideration when hiring the permanent aid. Thanks to this experience, I now knew that the best aid for me would be one who was a little more social and left me alone when I was doing my work. This is much easier than finding out that a partnership doesn’t work after the aid has been hired, and having to go through the whole process of changing aids. Additionally, I would advise that if a student is reluctant to have an aid as I was, that all adults including parents and teachers refrain from accommodating them   too much, as this will make them realize the importance of getting one.