My son's class is working on a project that will result in a book published through a vanity press that will be a keepsake for him.
OK, perhaps I am a really mean and cynical person, but I doubt that your DS will ever look back on the poems with fondness. He did them, he hated doing them, and they are done. The keepsake part of this may be a red herring. They will be bound nicely and he will throw them out when he moves away to go to college. Or you will keep them in your house.
(he is the only one of my kids who has ever cared about his grades), so he is doing his best to produce work the teacher will accept.
I think it's great that he's motivated by grades-- if that's what will get him to work, that's fine.
The last assignment is the artwork that will go on the accompanying pages. He has been told under no circumstances is he going to be allowed to draw stick figures. This is all he ever draws.
Remind us how old he is? What standard are the other kids being held to? Has it been articulated in a comprehensible way?
If this were not a keepsake book, I'd recommend that he suck it up and just make the kinds of drawings the teacher wants. But because this is something he will be keeping as a memory, I would at least like him to be proud of his illustrations. I emailed the teacher and asked if she might reconsider about the stick drawings. Her response is that she is grading him on effort, and stick figures show very little effort. So now he truly has to make the choice of whether he wants the better grade or drawings he likes.
Can he find a way to flesh out the stick figures, color them, add details, whatever, to demonstrate effort that meets the teacher's criteria?
The pic you posted was hysterically funny and very evocative.
Is it about effort or results? I realize I'm wanting it both ways, and that it probably isn't reasonable.
Actually, I think it's reasonable. You ideally want both effort and results. You are just being sensible in knowing that with kids who have disabilities, you may get one or the other but not always both at the same time, and not predictably.
Because I don't think he's ever going to care to look at it again, I'd say to see if you can get him to find a way make work that meets the teacher's expectations. It's schoolwork. Once you start bending on meeting standards with a tricky kid like this, you have new problems.
DeeDee
