Nothing stands out. That’s OK, they have no idea the genius in their midst. His reading is fine, the idiot math they teach in NYC is fine, his art teacher thinks he is extra (I’ll find out why tomorrow) and his phys education improved (they used to fight last year!).
Our teacher was on maternity leave until Jan 1, this report card was basically the same as the one before. I do not care. I was ready for a fight though, I thought there would be behavior complaints, I had everybody at the Board of Education’s email address ready to go, I am a tad paranoid and defensive, or I like to be prepared. You see, it is about conformism and we do not fit into that category. The historical truth (since they made me read the books last year) is that the education system in America is a factory system developed to produce workers that started in the late 1800’s. We are not factory people. We are special. The school showed us a movie last year about how the system fails boys, the Principal gave a seminar to her teachers on the same subject, and then they proceed to continue to fail the boys. 25% of Kindergarten and 1st grade boys have sessions with the “guidance counselor,” that’s how they deal with boys.
So what do I have? A boy who does massive amounts of art and sculpture at home: shields, dog carriers, Olympic figures, incredible things. A boy who this weekend used his Jenga blocks to recreate Stonehenge, I would like to do a survey of 1st grade parents, how many of your kids even know what that is? My son thinks outside the box. OK, he shouldn’t always drag the box with him, I get that! We are working on that. But he is special and I have to keep his “special” intact so when he gets into the work world he will shine as the superlative that he is, and HE IS! I suppose I am his biggest fan, but if you had seen him at his Circus Arts performance at school, you would agree! The only one who dared to hula-hoop around the neck, the only one to dance like he had 2 gay dads, the only one to shine! OK, others shined, but I got a sunburn from my son!
Anonymous says
You better say others shined on that performance or I won’t burn a disc for you!! LOL…. Amen to the failure of boys at PS40…it’s so true.. when will Felder wake up and address the situation. She’s behind the times on that and the boys are going to be the majority not the minority not to mention the fact that in these econimic times, she’s not going to have an easy time “forcing” out the “problems”…. She needs to take that conformist, protect the budget attitude and…how do I say this kindly…SHOVE IT! Get with the times, think outside the box and let’s move on to educate our children not ignore them until the parents get so fed up they move on…it’s too late for the kids by that time, Anyhoo….now that I ranted… glad you had a good report card! : )
gaynycdad says
It was a good report card, not perfect. Thanks for your response, I did mention to the teacher that the school is not teaching the boys as well as they could per the movie we saw last year and per Ms. Felder’s own seminar, my message got out there!