Oh, no! Just when I thought things were going better... I received an email from DS's teacher today and it sounds like she thinks he shouldn't be accelerated at all. A few quotes from her email include:
* In response to our request for him to be encouraged to check out more difficult books than "Scooby Doo" (which he has checked out every single week of school so far and takes him about 15 minutes to read) she said: "If he would rather go check out a Scooby Doo book, I'm not going to fight it. He is a first grader and Scooby Doo is age level appropriate, even if it is too easy for him. I told all of my students at the beginning of the year that when we go to check out books, it is completely their choice as long as they choose one Spanish and one English. I'm going to stick to that..."
* "I know he needs to be challenged, and he will be. But I also have to keep in my mind that he is a first grader and there are certain things that are appropriate and certain things that he isn't ready for yet. In my grad school class right now, we just finished reading a book called "The Hurried Child" and it talked a lot about pushing kids too hard at a younger age and having them end up hating school as they get older. I know that (DS) is very bright, but I also see that he is one of my only students who has a very hard time getting his jobs done in the morning, remembering all parts of multi-step directions, and he is still communicating to me and to others in a baby-talk type of voice unless I remind him to use his first grader voice. So I will push him academically, but we also have to focus on the three things that I just mentioned because those are age appropriate goals that he should be able to accomplish."
I think she has made the assumption that we are trying to push him. I don't think she understands that we are just trying to keep up with him! She says she will challenge him, yet she has now dismissed all suggestions we made for some acceleration...
Oh, I think it's time for a good long cry...
