Wednesday, November 16, 2022

 Wednesday, November 16, 2022

I slept well and woke before the alarm went off. I lay in bed and allowed my brain to seek out negative thoughts. They weren't significant issues. Many were from incidents from years ago. I didn't get particularly agitated, but it wasn't joyful either. Yesterday I was so up. Was this self-regulation returning to the baseline? I got up shortly after seven after completing my in-bed morning exercises. I fed Elsa before we went on our walk.

   I met someone new this morning as I walked on Holoholo. Gail had lived here for years, but we had never run into each other. She asked me if I knew Mrs. Pope had died at over 100? I didn't know her. Gail told me she lived on the corner of Hiolani and Nehiwa. There was only one house on that corner, and Mary lived there. She wasn't anywhere near 100. I called Darby when I got home. Mrs. Pope had lived in that house over ten years ago. She said everyone who knew her still considered her part of the neighborhood.

   B came up bearing tomatoes fresh tomatoes from his garden. His are the best in the state. Growing tomatoes here is a challenge. We have a bug that pierces the skin just as it's ready to be picked. Whatever they do makes the tomato inedible for humans. I asked B if he used pesticides; the only thing I knew worked to keep off the bugs. Nope. The wild chickens on our property keep the bugs at bay.  

      With eighth grade K, I started working on his next book, Under the Mesquite, applying the Gating Game. The text allowed us to work on naming pronouns and conjugating verbs. He did have some experience with the latter when he studied Hawaiian.

    I texted K's mom that I was concerned he would be expelled from the school for cheating. She texted me to say she had grilled him and made sure he knew the consequences of plagiarism. She said she didn't want to hear any more about it. Since he handed it in the other day, there was nothing I could do anymore. If his teacher doesn't suspect he didn't write it, it tells me something about the school. Judy said the school would do nothing because they wanted the money. However, their graduates are their product. If they put out lousy products, will people continue wanting to buy their wares? I wouldn't like to send my child to a school that turned a blind eye to cheating. I still believe he didn't write the paper on A Raisin in the Sun. He kept looking away from the camera when I worked with him today. It gave me more evidence that he was lying. I will do nothing. My concern is for the boy, not the school. His mother's response made it clear that she had not raised him to believe he should cheat himself through life. As I reviewed the evidence, it seemed clear he had written the paper before the weekend, perhaps before he decided on the theme of his paper. His mother could check his email. This boy wasn't sophisticated enough to know to delete an email from someone who sent him the paper. It all leaves me very uncomfortable.