Wow, you guys have been busy while I've been at work! What a nice conversation and so many perspectives offered on the topic.
What I think I've learned is...(oh, that sounds like Dorothy as she's getting into the balloon to head home!)...that I can't stop advocating. We thought we could "leave well enough alone" and let MrWiggly go and back off the advocacy. It felt good to coast for most of the school year with really very little in terms of conflict or upset. But I realize now that he is more a "still waters run deep" kind of kid than I realize and that just because he's not tantrumming or refusing school doesn't mean he's happy. Whoever said he was able to suck it up and get by is right. And I don't want him to do that.
I had to help my older son deal with an idiot of an english teacher senior year of HS at this same district. It was his only year here. She was held up by all as the epitomy of english teachers and this master at teaching the kids rhetoric. Well, turns out that a kid could do fine in her class as long as he wrote what she told him to. When she made notes on a rough draft it was in the form of "you should change this sentence to read...." - seriously. The kids weren't learning, they were copying her writing. And my son knew what to do to pass the class and the teacher never had his respect. Same teacher told me that my son was arrogant. I was shocked. When I asked for an example she told me that when the librarian was teaching them how to format a disk my son didn't take notes. I told her that was because he'd been formatting disks for 4-5 years and had taken college level computer programming courses at his previous HS. She didn't get it. And never got him. But at his age he could handle the situation and he got by in the class. I don't want my 7 y/o to have to deal with that crap. When he's older, yeah, he needs to learn how to deal with those people. But right now I want him excited by his teachers, not disrespectful of them.
The problem for us is that there aren't choices for teachers. So, I'm not sure what I can do other than work with the teachers and stay on top of things more. And perhaps homeschool or move if the situation becomes really bad, although those aren't very realistic options for us. I just know that my advocacy skills need to grow with my son! The year wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. Hopefully with this lesson learned we can make future years better.
