If Sleeping Earned a Grade, He’d Be an “A” Student

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

There is a student in my homeroom class I may have mentioned before. He likes to sleep. What I mean is, he likes to sleep at school. He especially likes to sleep in my class. Yesterday, he fell asleep so many times I felt it necessary to e-mail his mother to let her know. I have not as yet heard back.

This boy’s mother knows we’ve had a problem with him falling asleep in class all year. She has taken him to the doctor and was assured there was no medical reason for him to be falling asleep at school. The reason, according to what she told us the doctor said, is that the boy doesn’t get enough sleep at night.

Why isn’t the boy getting enough sleep at night? His mother says she doesn’t know. He has a reasonable bed time. His friends tell us a different story. They say the young man isn’t getting enough sleep at night because as soon as his mother goes to bed, he gets on his smart phone and spends most of the night on social media and playing games. The boy, of course, denies this.

Today we had a quiz on the digestive system in Science class. It was ten questions that required one or two word answers. The students had read the material the day before, and we had a video lesson on the digestive system the school day before that (a Friday). They were told there would be a quiz today.

Most of the students did very well. A couple of young ladies who prefer to talk and not pay attention during class just barely passed. I had to wake up the subject of today’s post so he could take the quiz. He fell back asleep after question 4. I didn’t wake him up again until the quiz was over.

Of the 4 questions he answered, he got only 1 correct. When I asked him why he couldn’t stay awake for the quiz, he told me it’s because he doesn’t care.

We’ve conference with this mother several times about this young man’s behavior, his grades, and his sleeping in class. We’ve called, had him call, e-mailed her, and referred him to the Principal’s office. We’ve tried to encourage him, reward him when he stays on task and gets his work done on time, or at all. My colleagues and I are at a loss. His mother tells us she doesn’t know what to do with him. The boy himself acts like he doesn’t care.

When he sleeps, he misses instruction. When he’s awake, he’s a distraction to the other students. We’ve worked with him and tried everything in the book. I’m tempted, going forward, to just let him sleep but I know that’s not the answer. What I will do is keep trying to engage him and hope, at some point in the near future, he’ll wake up to the need to stay awake in class.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator.