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Alisdair and Will started school on Wednesday. Alisdair has a new teacher. Three days in, and I'm already on a slow burn toward her.
See, I met with her before school started to check in, inform her of Alisdair's budding ADHD and how bored he can get, and generally make sure she checked in with the special ed teacher and that his IEP (Individual Education Plan) was put into place. I get some platitudes on how she will, but she's sure it'll be fine. Me, I'm seeing how she's going to have 30 kids in her class this year with no help, and I don't think fine is the word, but I let her know I was available to help whenever if she needed me.
Today, she sends a note home with Alisdair. Basically he has problems listening, problems focusing, problems being off in his own little world and forgetting where he was, and was "shooting off rockets" during Math. See, when he's bored, he pretends his pencils are rockets and makes them fly around above his desk. In this case, he's bored because he's mastered addition and subtraction, and his daddy's teaching him multiplication at home. Meanwhile, here at school, they're covering the basic numbers again for the benefit of the kids who haven't seen a number all summer and forgot. So yeah, he's bored. It was also rainy today, so they had no recess -- no chance for him to run around and work off extra energy.
She said "I hope his behavior improves next week." Well, unless they find a way to put him in a smaller class, let him run around, give him the attention needed to keep him on task, or start covering material he hasn't known for a year now, I personally don't see how it could. We've talked about it. It's just not altogether under his control, and I've not had the money to get him to a doctor to be tested and diagnosed formally for ADHD beyond the assessment the school gave last year. Nor do I want to resort to medicine straight off the bat just to keep him sedate in class. So I'm frustrated and pissed off, and so hoping I get to move in the next month or so, whether Seattle or just to the charter school in Wichita Falls. Anything but putting him through this.
Argh.
See, I met with her before school started to check in, inform her of Alisdair's budding ADHD and how bored he can get, and generally make sure she checked in with the special ed teacher and that his IEP (Individual Education Plan) was put into place. I get some platitudes on how she will, but she's sure it'll be fine. Me, I'm seeing how she's going to have 30 kids in her class this year with no help, and I don't think fine is the word, but I let her know I was available to help whenever if she needed me.
Today, she sends a note home with Alisdair. Basically he has problems listening, problems focusing, problems being off in his own little world and forgetting where he was, and was "shooting off rockets" during Math. See, when he's bored, he pretends his pencils are rockets and makes them fly around above his desk. In this case, he's bored because he's mastered addition and subtraction, and his daddy's teaching him multiplication at home. Meanwhile, here at school, they're covering the basic numbers again for the benefit of the kids who haven't seen a number all summer and forgot. So yeah, he's bored. It was also rainy today, so they had no recess -- no chance for him to run around and work off extra energy.
She said "I hope his behavior improves next week." Well, unless they find a way to put him in a smaller class, let him run around, give him the attention needed to keep him on task, or start covering material he hasn't known for a year now, I personally don't see how it could. We've talked about it. It's just not altogether under his control, and I've not had the money to get him to a doctor to be tested and diagnosed formally for ADHD beyond the assessment the school gave last year. Nor do I want to resort to medicine straight off the bat just to keep him sedate in class. So I'm frustrated and pissed off, and so hoping I get to move in the next month or so, whether Seattle or just to the charter school in Wichita Falls. Anything but putting him through this.
Argh.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-22 08:24 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)Sorry, but from the other side of this coin, I'm still pretty bitter that my youngest essentially "lost" all of third grade because of one child. Granted this child had legitamate problems, but every day of class for him (and every other student) was one of watching the teacher deal constantly with this childs fits, melt-downs, and assorted tantrums. Between that and the run of the mill discipline problems every teacher has to deal with, there was essentially no time or attention left for actual teaching. Because my child was essentially well behaved, he was basicaly "shelved" for that school year. That fact, that well behaved kids get ignored in todays school system, continues to make me angry.
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Date: 2004-08-22 10:18 am (UTC)From:I do understand what you're getting at. That's the whole point behind IEPs, though -- to find a way to get those children what they need without disrupting the entire class, making it a problem for everyone. That's why we went through all the testing and evaluations, to make sure we could find a way to solve these problems to everyone's satisfaction. I know he can be (he isn't always) disruptive under less-than-optimal conditions, but simply disciplining him will not solve the problem. He's not trying to be disruptive, but he also doesn't have the impulse or mental control to fully keep from it. He's a good kid, and he wants to be good, but he needs help.
I encourage her to send him to another room if he's becoming disruptive, or to have him take tests away from other students. We've developed ways to help him focus and not be a disruption (at least not any more than any other kid), but the teacher has to be able and willing to use those methods before it's going to get any better.
I'm sorry about your child's experience. I guess the only thing we can all do is try to find methods that will work best for our own children, and educational environments that can help them be as happy and healthy as possible.