Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional All the other stories sucked.

This is very poor writing. My daughter has answered this question negatively, but in proper writing format.

My husband was asked to write an essay about his town. He wrote it on the color brown. It brought a good grade and was witty. And he was right, everything in the town is brown.

Of course it's poor writing. He has severe dysgraphia. This is as good as it gets when he has to write it out by hand. He can give his subplots more subplots when he's dictating. I wasn't so concerned with the quality of writing as to how to help him learn that he can't be rude even when what he is saying is the truth.

Or take the consequences of not doing so. I'm kind of with Dbat, in that I thought it was funny (and not an entirely unanticipatable result of the assignment), and wouldn't be inclined to dole out any home consequences beyond an offer to suggest less-offensive-to-the-teacher wording.

That said, I have a really bad attitude towards school. I was a mostly-good kid when I was in school, despite it being stupid and boring, but I just have no tolerance for that same stupid and boring now, even though it's not being inflicted directly upon me.

ABQMom - that's fine, just tell him the new 'Mom's Rules of School' that are
1) Be positive
2) Make any writing assignment twice as long as the kid next to you
3) Find something to like

Then tell him the 'charm school' joke and promise to teach him some new bad words if he can show that he doesn't need to attend charm school himself. If he complains that he doesn't like the rules, or that they 'shouldn't be that way' be sure to remind him that he is a kid and sometimes just has to obey, because he is a kid.

If you can do all that, I think he'll be a happier person, and it will be a great example for me of 'I can give advice that I didn't myself follow!'

Smiles,
Grinity

ABQmom - I can soooooo so just imagine my ds writing something similar. He's been very tempted on a few of the "explain your work" math problems he's had lately...

FWIW, my ds loves humor (for anyone reading who doesn't know about him, he's severely dysgraphic and has an expressive language disorder impacting written expression)... one thing that struck me about this situation was perhaps you could sit down with your ds, acknowledge that he has a valid point (at least, imo he does :D), and explain why a filter is needed on the language... then the two of you could re-write his response with a twist of humor - take out the "sucks" and whatever other inappropriate language there is, but let him write out what he really felt, just show him that you can do it more successfully with a bit of nice humor.

Since I don't know his current teacher, I don't know how she would have reacted to that... but I think that for some teachers, particularly if they understand the writing challenges that dysgraphic kids have, the humorous response would be acceptable. I only suggest that because I know, for my ds, it's tough enough to write anything even when he's motivated. When he doesn't understand the point of an assignment it's just a *really* really tough thing to do! Humor helps.. if nothing else.. it at least helps ds feel a little better about it

Best wishes,

polarbear

When asked to "explain his answer" on simple (one operation) math problems DS8 (2nd grade) is now defaulting to one sentence of "because I know my math facts".

We blame the AS.

"And this will be exactly what he tells me about the assignment. That she didn't ask him to make it a certain number of words, that it had to be positive, etc. If it wasn't defined, he assumes he can approach it as he wishes."

That is awesome! Some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years in law school to learn to think that way. He is doing it at twelve. Bravo!

I worry about having a kid in school because I look at these situations like your son which is obviously not acceptable to the teacher. I would have shot back the following response:

Thank you for bringing my son's response to your assignment to my attention. I am assuming you are taking issue with his use of the words "hate" and "sucks" as well as the negative tone of his response. I will discuss these issues with him. However, to avoid similar situations in the future, perhaps you could send me a list of words you find objectionable. Unfortunately, my son has been exposed to some colorful language in his lifetime. I would hate for this to happen again.
As for the issue of tone, I think more detailed instructions would prevent misunderstandings in the future. I think something like this might have gotten you the results you were after: Please write about your favorite myth using at least 250 words and in a manner that makes me feel good about my curriculum choices.
Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

Anyway, apparently my junior high past time is alive and well.

Bazinga! At least the teacher would know where the kid gets his verbal agression from.

But the above is still too abstract for some kids at that age.

Truth is that the assignment is perfectly worded for kids in the 'meaty middle.' For little Gifties it often works well to focus less on 'how I felt' and more on 'compare and contrast the main characters in two of the myths we read, defend your conslusions with passages from the text.' When my son did like a piece of literature, the reasons were well too sophisticated for an elementary school kid to articulate.

And if they aren't too sophisticated for the child, they may well be from lower elemantary teacher - if memory serves,my son earned a big red question mark for this spelling sentence:
Breaks: When the Character Steve in Blue's Clues talks directly to the audience, he breaks the third wall.

Good luck,
Grinity

UPDATE:

He came up very upset and wanting to talk to me about the unfair thing that happened at school today. He added some information I hadn't hear - he also got points taken off of an assignment in his social studies class, since the assignment is to follow the laws of chivalry (which they're studying) at school and at home. Since his essay wasn't "chivalrous", he lost points on that assignment as well.

His reasoning for why he was upset:

The assignment did not ask for three positive things about one of the stories. It asked his opinion and why he had that opinion, and he did exactly that. He said if he liked the story because it was the shortest, how should he know he was supposed to lie and say something the teacher would like better?

He also did not understand why he could not use the words hate or sucked in his essay. He said he's heard the teacher use them, heard other teachers use them, and hears them all the time at school.

And so I tried to explain the difference between casual conversations and written essays and how some things aren't appropriate in one setting that are okay in another.

His response? Then can somebody please give me a list of what is not ok to write? How in the world am I supposed to know?

Hmm. I do have a VERY blunt DD8 whom we suspect may be ASD (and this is one reason why) but I don't think she would answer an assignment this way. She would have a sense that this was not what the teacher wanted to hear and would at least pretty it up and lengthen it. However, she is a talented and enthusiastic writer so that may change things a bit.

I did want to post this, though, because I still think it's hilarious. (This was DD's work from first grade and a rare instance where she lost a point.)

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/808/answercut.jpg