Monday, October 27, 2008

...to not call me about such things

Big Boy is not a model student. Never has been. The first week of first grade he came home with a multiple paged note regarding his horribleness. My first thought was to get him out of that class, clearly this was oil and water. My second thought was sometimes you have to deal with difficult people. This was a two way street, they were matched, they were going to work it out. My first thought would have been better, by the beginning of the second semester she had completely put him on "independent study" which meant, blocks in the corner. Guess who had to repeat the first grade.

Now, I totally get how frustrating it is to try to teach him something academic. This is why I won't homeschool him, I'd like to preserve the relationship at the expense of his mediocre education. He is smart, he can tell you anything, but ask him to write it down and it's World War III.

This was just the way that it was, until three times in two weeks last year I saw three different programs on Dysgraphia. First, Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz, was on a show talking about how he is Dyslexic and his son is Dysgraphic. His son was diagnosed first. During one summer vacation, The Fonz and his wife noticed on a cross country car trip that their son was a wealth of information. He'd read brochures and could tell you anything about anything he'd read, even weeks later he'd recall that time in Nebraska at this and such. They were so proud, until he went back to school and had to write the proverbial "What I did on my summer vacation" essay. He failed. And not just a little.

Next a Criminal Minds were the high school aged unsub was thought to be an idiot, turns out he was a genius he just couldn't communicate this. High math scores, very low grades in anything that required writing. Hmmmmmmmm?

I called his guidance counselor and asked if they could test him. THE GUIDANCE COUNSELOR DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE PROCEDURE FOR TESTING WAS. We went round and round and back and forth, and we never got anywhere. Finally, two weeks before school got out we had a meeting with the school district. I kid you not when I say that in spite of being in his office weekly for at least two months, when he walked into the meeting he introduced himself to me. Want to guess how much weight my opinion had in that meeting?

So this year, we've already started getting the calls regarding Big Boy. He's unmotivated and seems interested in things other than his assignments. The first call I took and explained to the teacher that I had my suspicions that there may be some sort of issue that we need to look into regarding Dysgraphia, asked him if most of the problems involved avoid having to write things. Yes, he indicated that most of the trouble was when they were asked to write, most of the missed assignments were writing assignments. I told him if he'd look into my issues, I'd help with his. That's the last I heard from him.

Today he called hubby. He tried me first, but I was unavailable. But he told hubby the same blah blah blah regarding Big Boy not doing his work, and being unmotivated. So, in the future, don't call me. I really don't need written confirmation that my son is bright. If you are having problems motivating him, maybe you should discuss it with him. If you the teacher cannot hear what I have to say, then how do you think that Big Boy will be able to comprehend the gibberish that I spew?

Also, I'm going to start calling you when Big Boy hits his brothers or comes home late.

2 comments:

Tracey said...

PUSH THE ISSUE WITH THE SPECIAL ED DEPARTMENT. IF A PART WANTS TESTING THEY HAVE 40 DAYS TO COMPLY! IT'S THE LAW! GO TO THE PRINCIPAL!!

Momto5 RachelJoy Photography said...

sounds so frustrating!! Its so good to see you really trying to do your best for him! kudos mom!

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Cast of Characters

  • BOB - Born of the body children
  • BOTH - Born of the heart children
  • Roran aka Big Girl - 18 year old BOB daughter - recently booted from the nest
  • Big Boy - 15 year old BOB son
  • Radical - 9 year old BOB son who fyi is not RAD
  • Felpsy aka lil middle - 4 year old BOTH boy who is RAD and is the cumin in our soup
  • Booger - 4 year old BOTH boy, sib to Felpsy, Twin to....
  • Princess - 4 year old BOTH girl. Diva,