Apathy Jack writes:

In a day that started with a student self-harming in front of me, and ended with a student who is trying to get her life on track and turn around her bad reputation coming to me to ask advice on how to start and participate in a fight in a way that wouldn’t bring the school into disrepute, it’s nice that the middle can have conversations like this:

“You lied to my Mum at Parent/Teacher evening.”
“How so?”
“You said I do my own thing a lot instead of doing what the class does.”
“You are aware that you’re wandering around the classroom as you say this?”
“What?”
“Look around you. The other twenty-two students in this class are all sitting at their desks copying the notes off the board, but you’ve been wandering around for the last ten minutes and haven’t even gotten your book out. I’m not even entirely sure where your bag is.”
“Yeah, well you still lied. You said I argued a lot!”
“You do know this is an argument, right?”
“What?”
“This conversation we’re having: we’re arguing. In a particularly post-modern bent, you’re arguing that I lied when I said you argue a lot.”
“Yeah, well, just hush.”
“Touché.”