DeadpanAnn (old blogger version)

There's a new kid in my 4th and 5th period group. Actually, he's been there a few weeks now, but he's kinda weird so everyone still thinks of him as new. Let's call him Z.

Z is a white kid. I have two white kids total, and the other one is not in his class, so he stands out. Z has been home schooled for the past three or four years, and his social skills are not what they could be. That's not to say that the rest of my students are sitting upright with their napkins in their laps and having conversations about fine art, mind you, but he's just not on the same social level as they are. Z also has a noticeable Southern drawl, which is capped off by a slight lisp. Now that you've just read me saying that someone's Southern drawl is noticeable, I'd like to remind you that this is Southern Mississippi. If it's noticeable here, that's a hell of a drawl. Anyway, my point is that he sounds like a gay Southerner. Not a good combination. At all.

He's developed a sense of humor as a defense mechanism, and he says weird things every once in a while. I can't tell if he's trying to be funny or if he's just not bright at all. Judging from some of the work he does, I am really beginning to wonder whether his mother home schooled him at all or if she just kept him home and didn't do any work with him. Sometimes I get the feeling he's jackin' with me, you know?

At the beginning of the year, all students filled out several personal data forms. One that I give them asks them about their favorite candy, etc. Z's form never got filed, and I came across it yesterday while organizing my pile. On the question, "What is your favorite subject?" he wrote, "Monkey's."

Something's telling me not to ask.