Can you imagine a 16-year- old girl not having any friends or interests, not going anywhere except to the library? This behaviour is very unlike that of today's teenagers. But that is how one of my students in Form Five behaved.
She seemed strange in the eyes of her classmates because she never talked to anybody. She always sat by herself in a seat next to the window.
I do not know whether she liked it that way or because others want her to do so.
As her English teacher I did not notice Helen (not her real name) during the first few lessons. I only noticed her when students were asked to form themselves into groups for project work. I found she had been left out. Nobody was willing to have her in their group.
I asked Helen why she did not join any group and she said bluntly: 'I don't want to work with others. I can do the project myself!' I asked her to stay behind after the lesson.
During the lunch break, when all students had gone out, I asked her why she had behaved like that. Helen was reluctant to talk to me in the beginning.
