Yes, 'Neato's joke was completely at the expense of one particular teacher, JD! She was the reason we're practicing "emergency homeschooling" this year.

She made my gentle attempts at advocacy a referendum on her teaching ability. How does a parent deal with it when the TEACHER makes it personal? So unprofessional! I apologized to try to get the train back on the tracks, and she ignored my apology. Meanwhile, my son's acting out got worse as he grew more unhappy. We saw no good solution to this impossible situation, and we pulled him out for HSing. It was highly unpleasant, so we laugh to keep us from crying/punching something/having a nervous breakdown.

So no, not you! So not you! Oh, SOOOOO not you! If you had been my son's teacher, we'd be baking you things every week to say thank you for the amazing you're doing! Not yanking our kids from the classroom.

P.S. I also agree that the challenge=deer in headlights is an accurate assessment of a common situation. You're not likely to get argument from anyone here about that! It's one of the reasons we all want our kids to be challenged early in pre-K/elementary school. How else will they learn to deal with challenge in a healthy manner?


Kriston