Evil Mistress of Math

• Point 1: When I am David's math teacher, I often refer to myself as "Mrs. F--, the Evil Mistress of Math." David is amused.
• Point 2: David, like many teens, does not like to concentrate on things which don't amuse him.
• Point 3: Sometimes, the math concepts take concentration.

This week, we finally hit a topic that required a little thinking. David was just not into it. He got very emotional. When he does this, I get quieter and "flatter" in my voice. David declared that the " ... pie pieces make you eviler and EMOTIONLESS." I suppose that was geared to get a rise out of me; I merely agreed in a quiet, flat voice. It did calm him down, when he realized that all the fussing was not going to convince me to stop the lesson.

I'm not sure in what order this happened, but ... he also semi-yelled, "Bad Job, David!" when he didn't get something right away. I guess he didn't get what he wanted from me then either (likely, sympathy) - I responded in a sharp voice, "I don't allow any one else to speak to you that way; YOU may not do so, either."

Eventually, the quiet, EMOTIONLESS, continuance of the lesson won.  :-)