Diseducators

"One of my students constantly changes her name. I don't find it particularly shocking. I've had students enter the classroom late through the window, instead of using the door. I've had students who choose to sit on the floor or at the foot of my lectern while I teach, not at their desks. I've had to break up violent fights, with desks and chairs flying across the room as if my lessons had released some kind of paranormal energy."

"I've made a list of her creative monikers: Over the past week alone, she has gone by Gioia Del Colle (the name of a town in Puglia), Sibilla Salute (a play on the name of a popular contraceptive pill), Grazia Deis (a riff on the Latin phrase Dei gratia), Melissa Godano, Serena Sventura, Michela Stobene, Dolores Indolore. They're sonorous but off-kilter names, each charged with either desire or distress, and all far more evocative than her real name, which is Ornella Zanni."

A teacher routinely faces extreme and unpredictable adolescent behavior, including late window entries, floor seating, violent fights, fainting, seizures, panic attacks, withdrawal, and public sexual acts. The teacher remains unshocked by a student who frequently adopts imaginative aliases. A recent week’s list of chosen names includes Gioia Del Colle, Sibilla Salute, Grazia Deis, Melissa Godano, Serena Sventura, Michela Stobene, and Dolores Indolore. The names carry tones of desire or distress and feel more evocative than the student’s legal name, Ornella Zanni. The student resists directly revealing her current alias, forcing the teacher to plead and ask friends for disclosure.

Read at The Atlantic