Jenyfer Matthews

My son is six year old and at the moment seems to be going through what mothers the world round would recognize as “a difficult phase” : he’s extra sensitive, clingy, and prone to tantrums over nothing in particular.

I was up at the children’s school earlier in the week to watch a play my daughter was in and ran into my son’s teacher at pick-up time where she told me that my son had been “sub par” recently. I wasn’t surprised to hear that he was being somewhat difficult at school given how he’s been at home the last couple of weeks, but I found her choice of words somewhat strange. Sub par? I gave her the benefit of the doubt because my son was standing right next to me and I thought that perhaps she wanted to communicate with me in a vocabulary that he wouldn’t understand.

But the more I think about it, the madder I get. To give some background, I had a conference with this teacher just before the Christmas holidays. She told me at that time that my son was doing okay, but that one area of weakness was his handwriting and because of that he was having trouble “recording his thoughts.” I wanted to laugh when she said that – recording his thoughts? At six? Instead I told her that I did realize that he found writing challenging (as most boys his age do!) and that one thing we were doing at home was practicing writing his name – with 8 letters and only one repeat there are a good variety of shapes for him to practice. She looked at me, very seriously, and said “you did give him a very long name.”

After the sub par comment, I wrote her a note to ask her to be more specific. As awful as he sometimes behaves at home, he is usually much much better behaved at school. She responded to say he lacks concentration during lessons. O-k-a-y. If that’s the worst of it, then I’m not going to worry too much in the short term.

I am still concerned for the long term though. This particular teacher has made a switch from teaching 10 & 11 year olds to 5 & 6 year olds. Perhaps she’s not totally adjusted her expectations to their level of ability?

More worrying to me is whether or not this is a trend that I’ll have to deal with his entire academic career. I’ve read articles regarding the prejudice against boys in today’s school system – that teachers, instead of appreciating a boys different learning style, natural exuberance and energy level, and lack of maturity (as compared to girls the same age), will tend to punish the boys instead of trying to work with them. I think perhaps that is a part of this problem.

I admit that I’m having a bit of a mother lion reaction here, but I’m not totally blind. He’s been a royal pain of late and I haven’t always dealt with it well either. But this too shall pass. He’s always a bit difficult to get back in the swing of things after a long holiday and he’s getting his six year molars. This weekend I’m going to try and make a point of spoiling him a bit – more cuddles and one on one time. And staying in the pink theme I’ve been in since last week I’ve made him a treat – strawberry sorbet.

Okay, I feel better. Anything you’d like to get off your chest? I’m all ears.

While I’m off spoiling my boy, don’t forget to stop by this weekend when multi-published author N.D. Hansen-Hill is here with her latest Cerridwen release, Gray Beginnings, a horror story. And when I say multi-published I’m not exaggerating – Norah has published more than thirty novels in various genres. I’m totally in awe of her output. Maybe in her next book, a special favor to me, she can kill off an elementary school teacher. It never hurts to ask, right?

Be Sociable, Share!

•