"Helicopter Horror Stories"from a scholastic teacher edition magazine. This was after I had Noah's parent teacher conference last night. Noah is doing amazingly well for having such a rough start to the year. He got some 5 A's and 1 B. Afterschool tutoring, with Mr. Bill, does as much to improve his confidence as it does his grades. Kam and I were speechless by his high marks. We knew he had improved, but still surprised to see all those A's. Anyway, while in the meeting last night, Noah's teacher implied, more than once, that it was me that had a problem with adjustment and wanted Noah to be a perfectionist. I was shocked. And then I was angry. She really doesn't know me or Noah. There are 2 perfectionists in our house and they are both male. After Noah left her classroom on the first day and came home crying that he wasn't smart enough or ready to be in 3rd grade, I wrote her a note asking for her help to encourage him and like I had, assure him he would do well in her class. She dismissed my fears and said that she understood it was easy to overreact when our 1st born children overreact. Seriously, she was giving me the psych 101 lesson on parenting. I let the comment go at the beginning of the school year, as I thought it would be a bad idea to alienate his teacher. But last night I had to tell her I thought she was dead wrong about my intentions. I don't hover! I don't put my worries on my kid. He has his own worries, and with a demanding curriculum that asks the kids to do timed exams once a week - I think the pressure comes from class, not me or Kam even.
This is one of Noah's sample multiple choice math questions:
The sum of two numbers is 35. Their difference is 9. What are the numbers?
Please leave a comment if you can, how long does it take you to answer this question?
Maybe I am a helicopter parent, but I'm no math whiz - I didn't know the answer!
1 comment:
Welcome to 3rd grade! I'm not sure what to say Kathy! I work at the school so I can see where the teacher assumes that the pressure comes from home. One thing I do know is that teachers NEVER listen! Ethan has the world's most amazing teacher(lucky us)! Third grade is tough! We just talked today about what a "jump" there is from 2nd to 3rd grade. You are right that the expections put on a 3rd grader is too much! All we can do is learn to make the most of it for our children. Don't take offense to the teacher-you need to be a team for Noah! Hang in there-it doesn't get any easier. Take a breath and reflect-as long as you can assure yourself that you know how you are then don't give the teachers comments another thought, just be honest with yourself. Hope that helps! Big hugs! Stacy
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