Too purty to live in town.....

9/23/07

I went through the papers in Joe's backpack as I do every weekend. I found his progress report from his gifted science class. To my surprise, he is currently carrying a D- in the class!!! Ut-oh. He had only completed two assignments and gotten A's on them. The rest were mostly F's for not completing them or only partially doing them.

I talked to Joe about this. First, it was too hard. (cop-out) I didn't believe that for a minute. I know how smart he is. Next, he wanted out of gifted science and in the regular science class. (cop-out) I told him that quitting was NEVER an option, and that there were several resources available for him to use and we were going to exhaust EVERY AVAILABLE resource. I told him we'd meet with his teacher and arrange for him to stay after school up to two days a week to get him the extra help that he needed. Then he wanted a private tutor. (escape technique) Once again, I told him we'd use the resources available first.

I think that this teacher is one of the first who has truly challenged his intellect. This guy really makes him think and not just memorize material and regurgitate it at test time. I like that!! Joe's very good at memorization. He hasn't been challenged that much until now to draw conclusions from the information he has been given and then back up his conclusions with sound explanations. I strongly feel that even though this is difficult for him, it's still a very good thing. He has had difficulty with giving explanations, so this will only serve to improve that area of weakness he has.

As with anything new and different, his first reaction is from the oppositional defiance disorder part of him. He will resist, kicking and screaming (mostly figuratively), until he realizes that no matter how he tries to resist, he's gonna have to do it anyway. Then, he comes to the realization that he's got to do it, and gets down to business to get it done.

He did the same thing in his gifted math class, but to a reduced scale. We had made arrangements for him to stay after school and get extra help, but suddenly he was able to find the time to complete his work during class so he didn't have to stay after school after all. Simply put, once he knew that I and his teacher wasn't going to accept him blowing his work off, or doing it half heartedly, he buckled down and has since been doing quite well in that class.

So, now we're on the second stanza of this same song, but this verse is the science class verse. There's a part of all this that baffles me. Joe LOVES science. He's interested in weather, and used to watch the weather channel for hours!! He loves maps, and anytime there's a huge weather event in the world, we'd break out the atlas and look to see where it is, ie, the tsunami in Sri Lanka or the earthquakes in Pakastan. He really enjoys doing that.

All summer long, I have heard a constant diatribe about the 5th grade science club and how much he wanted to participate in it. I had the unpleasant duty of informing him that before he can be in 5th grade science club he has to have two straight weeks of consistently doing his science class homework thoroughly and completely and turning his work in on time. Once he shows me he can do the work in his science class, then I will let him be in science club. His first response was again a defiant, defensive one. "I don't really want to be in science club anyway." I don't believe that at all. It's merely a veil to prevent me from seeing how strongly the impact my mandate really has on him. I've known this child since before he was born, so this doesn't impress me.

I firmly believe that once he gets his head around the fact that this class is requiring him to put forth more effort than he has had to do in the past, that he'll step up to the plate and do it. It's going to require consistant monitoring from me, and absolutely no waivering by his teachers from the level of excellence we all know he's capable of.

If I thought for a minute that this class was too hard for him, I'd take rapid steps to pull him out of it. But I don't. The proof is in the two assignments that he completed and received A's on. He CAN do it, we just need to encourage and motivate him so that he WANTS to do it. By putting condition on his participation in science club, and the further disciplinary step of not allowing him to record the TV shows he enjoys, I believe we'll get his attention.

If that doesn't work, I will impound his gameboy, his PS2, and all tv and internet game playing time. Further steps could include lawnmower time and impounding all toys. (We use the term impound from watching Nascar races. It's a word he understands from when they impound the cars after qualifying and don't let them touch them until the race.) I am prepared to take as much fun stuff away as necessary until he comes to terms with what is expected from him.

It's not real fun to have to take this hard line with him, but I know that in the end, it will be well worth it. Next year will be even harder, and there will be even more demands on him academically, and more each year after that. I've got to begin preparing him now. I'm just so thankful that the teachers he has are as committed to Joe's success as I am. Knowing we are united on this and will back each other up sure makes this a lot less challenging than it would be without their support.

Thanks for stopping by,
Curls