Double, Double Toil and Trouble

I have a meeting with all three of Joey's main teachers on Wednesday at 11 o'clock.

Joey has been spitting in faces. He's been hitting other children, especially the classmate he sees the most. He's been screaming. He's been frustrated, angry, depressed, and bored, and he's acting it out for everyone to see.

When Joey was very small- brand-new, in fact- he didn't cry much. At the time, we just thought we had a "good baby"- and in fact, we did. He was such a good baby that if he cried, we jumped, because you knew something was seriously wrong. This was a child who didn't cry when lunch was late, sat patiently through lectures and appointments, and even stayed quietly in a stroller through my entire PhD graduation ceremony. When this child gets fussy, we want to know what the hell is going on.

Mrs. A sent home some "homework" a couple of weeks ago- words to learn five at a time until the end of the school year. Each year the kids have a list of these words, called the "word wall" (because they get posted up on a wall as they learn them). It was the list for first grade, with a note saying, "Joey, please learn these words!"

He knew them already. In fact, he's been reading these words for over a year now.

I emailed her, asking her what I was supposed to be doing with these words. Nine weeks into the semester, and Mrs. A had no idea that he already knew all these words- in fact, we're most of the way through the third grade word wall list. She suggested putting five of them in alphabetical order. Right. Apparently that was tedious (really? no kidding!) so now they are going to have him use the words in a sentence, maybe using the second grade words. OK, that's a little better, it includes some demonstration of comprehension, something Joey does need to work on.

But we didn't work this out before we implemented the lesson. In fact, Joey's needs were not only completely ignored, the teacher- nine weeks into the school year- appeared to be completely oblivious to what those needs are.

I remain not only unimpressed, but I'm starting to get plain pissed off.

She'd better be with the program by noon on Wednesday.