He Can't Sit Still (and that's ok)

If you ran a poll in my preschool classroom, asking the teacher, aids, and students who they thought was the troublemaker, all answers would float to one kid, Z. This classroom is a Special-Ed/IEP integrated classroom, contesting the old ways of complete separation of students, divided by differences. Z has a severe case of ADHD, where they cannot help but move around constantly, fidgeting with every little thing for some sort of sensory. When it's time to play, the students naturally float to one station, playing with a few toys at a time, considering their friends and what they're doing. 

But Z does the opposite; Almost ignoring everyone else's existence, he will bulldoze through a group of students, run to the full toy shelves, and swipe the entire row to the ground, making an absolute mess. His classmates start to cry as they are avalanched by wooden blocks and toy cars, and the teachers force Z to sit in the corner and isolate him in full. That's when he decides to stay alone in the corner, which he frequently doesn't, or not.

Z is a 4-year-old male black student from Providence. I know nothing of his home life or what kind of environment he lives in, but what I do know is that there is more to Z than the lash-outs that the teachers dread. 

He runs from corner to corner at all hours of the school day, but when it's rug time, I take a seat behind the rug on a miniature sofa. That is when Z comes over and sits right next to me, whether on my lap or leaning against me, he goes completely still. Fidgeting silently with one of the teacher's pop-it toys, Z and I quietly watch as the kids take part in the lesson. 

They think he doesn't understand, but that's not it. We don't understand, and once we open our minds, they will make us understand. It will just be in their own little way.