The sting of the last few days has worn off. I'm feeling a lot less defensive and a lot less stressed about the whole thing! To tell you the truth, I think I've been looking for an "incident" to complain about since we've been back in school. I guess I needed some other reason to be angry that we're not homeschooling anymore. I've been looking for some reason to be able to say, "See, it was a bad idea to send them back to school....I was right...we should have continued to homeschool....see, I was RIGHT!" Apparently, I've made this all about me....and really, it's about Amelia.
So what if she's behind the other kids in her class with reading! Big deal! She'll catch up, eventually. I really shouldn't care what this teacher thinks anyway. It makes no difference. Judy was right, let's pretend she went to school last year....so? It doesn't mean she would be reading any better than she is. Not every child is a good reader. Each of my kids has their own unique strengths and gifts. Socially, Amelia is much more advanced than some of the kids in her class. While doing well in socializing isn't going to get her a diploma someday, her attitude can play a huge part! I'm going to focus on encouraging her to read the things she LIKES and go from there.
As far as all the other "issues" this teacher has....I've decided to leave it alone until she brings it up again. If she does, then I will confront her face to face about her biased attitude and request that they pull Amelia out of her class and put her in one of the other 2nd grade classes.
For now, her reading goal for this 2nd quarter has been raised from 7 to 9 AR (Accelerated Reader) points. All we can do is get started and work towards that goal....one book at a time.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement! I sure wish that each of the commenters on this post could have been with me the morning of the parent/teacher conference! She wouldn't have known what to say!
I'll keep you all posted on Amelia's progress. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a great post that I read this afternoon over at Heart of the Matter. This post was written by Christine Hiester, a homeschooling mom of 4. The post title is "Doing or Being", Read it and give yourself a break.
Get ready for a Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway this weekend!
1 comment:
Hi Nancy, I missed your earlier post about the parent teacher conference but I think I can get the gist of it by this one. I'm not a homeschooling mom but I've heard the pros and cons with teaching kids at home. I admire homeschooling families and think children can blossom and excel in that environment.
I do think when they transition into a school setting, it takes some getting used to. Each child is unique and will learn in their own way and their own speed whether they're homeschooled or not.
I also think there is a bias from some school teachers about homeschooling and I'm guessing that's what you've encountered. What should have been a warm and encouraging meeting between parent and teacher obviously went south. That's on the teacher... shame on her. Her job is to connect with each child, assess their abilities and present the challenges each one is experiencing with the parent... in a non-judgmental way.
I'm sorry to hear yours was not conducted that way.
I also think teachers have it rough in the public school system. There is TREMENDOUS pressure to teach kids so they can score well on state standardized tests which impacts the school's funding. (And with a class group with huge variance in abilities.) If that pressure was removed, I think teachers could relax and teach for learning...not test scoring.
Just my two cents... I've no doubt you've done a fabulous job homeschooling your child and she'll catch up. Hang in there!
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