Last night my 7th grader, who is in an advanced LA class, could not do the assignments. They triggered his anxiety disorder, as they required that he share personal information and viewpoints with the teacher, which he said is "too stressful".
I've written about this before, and he is not an unwilling student - but he does have diagnosed anxiety, self-esteem and perfectionism issues.
So far he's had about 1-2 outbursts a week in LA over these assignments as well as several at home. Finally last night my wife said "enough is enough" and told him not to do them anymore.
We have requested an in-person meeting with his LA teacher and are waiting to hear back. She seems reasonable but handcuffed to the curriculum.
In the mean time, we have this difficult situation. He is a straight A student who now has several missing assignments. Clearly he is not going to be able to do them if the result is a breakdown every time he tries. But he is also stressed at the thought of getting bad grades.
I'm hoping we can find some way of staying within the curriculum and having his needs accommodated. We've been told that the district might not give him credit for the class if the curriculum is changed too much.
We've considered home schooling in LA this year, but it would be a logistical nightmare.
But we do need a solution. Too many sleepless nights and we are only 4 weeks in to the semester.
