Ok. I am a teacher's aide in our local school district. That being said, sometimes there are days that just make me want to tear my hair out and scream, and then there are days that make me glad I'm there, helping kids.

Today was one of those.

One of the girls in my 6th grade study skills class (again, I'm not the teacher, I'm just a push in aide in there to help with the underachieving students) brought a frog to class. A real live frog. She was keeping it in this little bag with a handle that had mesh around the top half of the bag. I'm not sure what it was really meant to carry, but it worked pretty well for the frog. I found myself hoping it was really a toad, as there was no water in there for an actual amphibian to survive for very long.

This girl has problems: she likes to cut herself. She's very thin and I wouldn't be surprised to hear she has an eating disorder. When I first started working in that class, she didn't like me. But over the course of the past month, we've come to an agreement, she and I, and now we get along pretty well. She still doesn't do her work. She still occasionally bothers the boy next to her, who has his own host of issues, but she's settled down. She asks me for help when other kids are bothering her. She seems to trust me.

And today she had a frog.

I wasn't sure if I should say anything and jeopardize our arrangement. I didn't see that the frog was bothering anyone. She wasn't going to pay any more attention to class if I took it away, and she seemed quite attached to the thing. So I told her to put it away and left it at that.

She didn't though.

She kept pulling it out. I kept reminding her to put it away. The kids around her all knew she had this frog, and by the end of the class, one of them, with a defiant, "I'm gonna tell" look on her face finally opened her mouth and told the teacher. I thought, "Oh no, I hope he doesn't take it from her. She would have a breakdown, and it's not hurting anything." What did he do? He ignored the tattle tale. Let our girl B keep her frog.

Sometimes it's just better to let those things lie.

But it was a good day. Because this girl, who seems to have issues with trust, she finally trusts me. She knows I'm not going to yell and scream and be mean. And a lot of these kids who live in chaotic homes really need a schedule and someone they can trust not to take their frustrations out on them. They come to love school, because it's safe. I find that sad. But I *am* glad that I can help them.