Hmm.
I believe some teachers at his school read this blog. I introduced them to the DITD website in hopes that they would be proactive. I don�t try to conceal my identity and I don�t write anything that is false and that I wouldn�t or haven�t told the principle. So, O.K.
There was one major incident in 3rd grade and one in 5th grade. In addition, there was daily criticism and nit picking.
One small incident at the beginning or 3rd, which set the tone for the year, occurred when the teacher wrote out a number line 0-10 and explained that 0 was the lowest one digit number and 10 was the lowest two digit number. My son raised his hand and asked, �Isn�t -9 the lowest one digit and -99 the lowest two digit?� (He had understood this for several years at that point) She stated, �No� and started the next day with the �Well, if you really were smart, then you ____.� This continued all year and escalated at certain points.
The big issue in 3rd grade (when he was 7 to 8 years old) occurred during the last quarter of the year in regards to the NON-GRADED Accelerated Reader Program. Each child had to earn a minimum number of points (I believe 5 or 7 was required) each period. If they chose, they could increase their stated GOAL at the beginning of each quarter. My son had read the first four Harry Potter books earlier that year (in addition to countless others) which were worth quite a few AR points each. He earned 39 AR points for the third quarter, so he set his goal at 40 AR points for the forth quarter. He took approximately 5 weeks to read H.P. the 5th. When he took the AR test, he only got 55% correct which did not pass and resulted in zero points. (I later learned that the previous four tests were at the 6th -8th grade level, but this test had been ordered at the 11th grade level and many other kids had also unexpectedly failed it.) Well, that is where she swept in. At the mid-quarter point, she announced (a new rule) that anyone who had not earned half of their AR points would not be included in the class party. So, even though my son had more AR points than many kids (from other books he had completed), he had to go to another teacher�s classroom while his class had a party. She made a point to announce to the class on several other occasions that DS would not meet his goal (the most ambitious in the class) and two days before the end of the school year, she announced that if a student had not met their goal, they would not receive their final report card or be included in the �field day� activities. She was just trying to get as much traction from this as she could at that point. Please remember that this is a non-graded requirement and he had easily surpassed the �requirement�, but missed the GOAL (that he set for himself) because the librarian had ordered the more difficult, higher grade level test as compared to the previous four which he had aced.
I�ll have to come back with the 5th grade issue.
