My 7 yr old doesn't like school and his teacher is calling us.

[always4bama]

If it was we knew nothing about it. We've known for a while school wasn't his favorite thing. Though he excels in school. Again, I'm not completely sure what his teacher is talking about until I actually meet with her. She has setup a meeting Thursday so I can get more details. But if he's just giving a general look of "man I don't want to do this" compared to a disrespectful look at the teacher. Then I'm not going to worry about it because I cannot control every facial expression he makes. But I'll find out more Thursday.

We have our things we do together. We throw the ball (football or baseball) together and he likes to sit in my lap and draw me pictures from my Alabama photos. He's got them all over the refrigerator. The "big thing" we (the boys and I) do is I'll get down in the floor on my knees and they see if they can bring me down. I'm still the champion but as I get older and they continue to grow I can see in the near future my title is going to be taken from me. :redface:

I agree with the "oh man, not this again" facial look, we all give those without bring disrespectful.

I was able to stand toe to toe with my girls until they were 13 and 14, even as females we had those matches, wanted the boyfriends to understand through my daughters I could take them down��. Glad they are married now!

I have a feeling it is just a phase, you seem to have things in order. Children definitely increases our prayer life.

 

[bamabelle1991]

She's in her 40's and not very hawt. :biggrin2: I know what you're getting at and I thought the same thing and expressed it to my wife. That if all he's doing is just some minor facial expressions and is not refusing to do the work or being a classroom disturbance then what's the big deal. But I'm going to wait until I meet with her to hear exactly what she means and give me more details. However, if I get up there and all it is is some minor facial expressions and nothing else then I'm going to politely tell her to deal with it and he's only 7. She's the adult.

Haha. You read my mind. I have found that younger teachers, while usually super excited about their job, sometimes don't understand kids if they aren't parents. On the other hand, a 20-yr, close to retirement teacher could be "over it" and be too set in her ways. I think you have a good plan in place. Wait and see what she says. I have a 7 year old niece who was a little reluctant to like school until she really started to read well. I think she was bored. Now, she can venture off into a book and it's fun to her. So, it's very possible, like mentioned above, that he is bored because he is smarter than what they are teaching. I hope you guys have a good meeting!

 

[CajunCrimson]

Is it possible he's being bullied? Maybe he doesn't like school because of something like that

Sometimes it's easier to say he doesn't like the teacher/school -- instead of confessing something like that.

Dang....I'm sounding like a bleeding-heart lib.....

but, I thought I'd mention it just in case.

 

[seebell]

BB this is from your OP: But she said he begrudgingly does his classroom work (by making facial expressions of not wanting to do it) and it is starting to become a distraction for her.

IMO this is inappropriate behavior. When asked to do his work he should say "yes ma'am" or his expression should remain neutral.

MY son had the bad habit of smiling/smirking when under stress like getting chewed out by a coach or teacher. It drove them crazy and hurt his chances with his coaches. Never did get him to stop . Guess he finally grew out of it . It sure didn't help him any.

 

[bamabelle1991]

I guarantee, he is not the only 7 year old who hates school and "begrudgingly" does his work. Methinks this teacher may have a bee in her bonnet. haha

 

[TheAccountant]

It's interesting to me to see how many people tend to think it's a problem with the teacher. Sign of the times of parenting and education I guess. Maybe the teacher is trying to be proactive and not let a small issue that's normal for a lot of kids grow into a bigger one? Maybe she sees potential in Buzz's kid?

 

[Bamabuzzard]

BB this is from your OP: But she said he begrudgingly does his classroom work (by making facial expressions of not wanting to do it) and it is starting to become a distraction for her.

IMO this is inappropriate behavior. When asked to do his work he should say "yes ma'am" or his expression should remain neutral.

MY son had the bad habit of smiling/smirking when under stress like getting chewed out by a coach or teacher. It drove them crazy and hurt his chances with his coaches. Never did get him to stop . Guess he finally grew out of it . It sure didn't help him any.

I'll find out Thursday more about the facial expressions. My concern is his "conduct slip" hasn't budged from an "A" all year then out of nowhere I'm getting a call that his behavior or "facial expressions" have gotten to the point of having to have a parent meeting. I'm withholding judgment until I meet with her face to face and get her to explain to me in more detail and put more into context what she's talking about.

Is the facial expressions occurring after a direct command to him from her to do his work? Or as she's giving the general command to the class to start on a task he's just making a subtle facial expression that isn't directed at her? That is a big difference to me. They're kids not robots. If it is a personal gesture of disrespect then we've got a problem. But if he's just making a general sigh to himself (that's not disrupting the class) then I'm not too much worried about it.

 

[seebell]

Thanks BB, hope your meeting goes well. Please keep us posted on the results.

 

[bamabelle1991]

It's interesting to me to see how many people tend to think it's a problem with the teacher. Sign of the times of parenting and education I guess. Maybe the teacher is trying to be proactive and not let a small issue that's normal for a lot of kids grow into a bigger one? Maybe she sees potential in Buzz's kid?

Yep, I've done that and based this opinion on the fact that BB's kid gets straight A's in conduct. That makes it seem like the problem may not the his son. I have a TON of friends who are teachers, in fact, most of them are. They even admit that there is always that *one* teacher who has issues. It's not an enigma. There are BAD teachers. BB said he knows this teacher and that she is awesome, so hopefully, this is just a little thing that has her annoyed and like you said, she is wanting to figure out how to get the most out of BB's child. Sounds like something an AWESOME teacher would do.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Yep, I've done that and based this opinion on the fact that BB's kid gets straight A's in conduct. That makes it seem like the problem may not the his son. I have a TON of friends who are teachers, in fact, most of them are. They even admit that there is always that *one* teacher who has issues. It's not an enigma. There are BAD teachers. BB said he knows this teacher and that she is awesome, so hopefully, this is just a little thing that has her annoyed and like you said, she is wanting to figure out how to get the most out of BB's child. Sounds like something an AWESOME teacher would do.

My wife's a school teacher and we are on the teacher's side first because kids are...well..kids. My kids aren't above lying, stretching the truth, not telling the entire truth etc. So we support the teacher until we start seeing reasons not to do so.

 

[Bazza]

Remind him the reason the Rodgers & Brady's of the world, even unheralded Malcolm Douglas, succeed is because of the time they spend in the classroom (i.e the film room). That's what sets apart the physically talented from the great and see if he can pretend he's actually in the film room while in school.

Yes excellent suggestion.

To take it a step further....what if he received an autographed pic of these 2 legends....PLUS a brief letter from each.....reminding him of the significance of getting a good education in order to succeed in sports. Might be a tall order but you never know. Contact the Packers organization and the Patriots organization....those folks are parents too and can relate. They would be sympathetic, I bet.

 

[TrampLineman]

I haven't read the whole thread yet but I am having a similar problem with my 10 year old this year. Honestly I think it has to do with the teacher and how they teach. Some make learning fun and some are just flat out boring. Last year my son finally cut the light on upstairs and enjoyed learning. Me and his Momma are now split and of course he had to transfer schools and he doesn't have me around every night to keep him straight, which both I think has something to do with his problem. He also has ADHD and has had that problem in the past. I think the biggest thing these days are the teachers have all their rights taken away from them with discipline (my teachers could pop us and I'm only 34) but yet these days they can hardly even raise their voice without getting in trouble. It just seems to be a year to year deal with us and my son and school.

 

[TrampLineman]

Yes excellent suggestion.

To take it a step further....what if he received an autographed pic of these 2 legends....PLUS a brief letter from each.....reminding him of the significance of getting a good education in order to succeed in sports. Might be a tall order but you never know. Contact the Packers organization and the Patriots organization....those folks are parents too and can relate. They would be sympathetic, I bet.

^^^^That always helps.

When I was a kid Beckett magazine (the price guide for cards of all kinds) used to publish the addresses to each baseball club in their magazine so you could send a card off to get signed, etc. I would find the one to his favorite (even if it's a Bama player) team and write a letter asking what Bazza just mentioned. It can only help!

 

[BamaInMo1]

My daughter's first grade teacher was constantly sending notes home about my daughter talking out in class. I finally sent a note asking her what it was my daughter was doing ( in the way of her talking out ) and come to find out it was all because she was answering questions out loud instead of waiting to be called on. I just told my daughter that I refused to get on to her for answering questions in class but to please "raise your hand".
My daughter had problems in math until a 3rd grade teacher found out how to make it fun for her and challenge her. Now she makes "As" in it.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Okay. A bit late but I had a busy end of the week and weekend. I met with my son's teacher and she backed off the stance of his expressions "bothering" her or being a "distraction" and turned into "He's a very smart kid and I want him to enjoy school so he can get the most out of it." Which I completely understand and agree with. However, that's not what we were told the reason for the meeting. I point blank asked her "Is his show of displeasure a distraction to the class or are they aimed directly at you?" She said "No". Then goes into the "He's a very smart kid and I want him to enjoy school..." thing. So that's the direction the meeting went and I just let the other stuff go. I think she may have realized when she got in the meeting she may have used the wrong words or maybe overreacted a bit. But that's okay. At least she is interested in my kid's progress. I can't fault her for that. There are teachers that simply don't give a crap. I'm glad she's not one of those.

I told her I was going to try some stuff at home to see if I could get him to look at school differently. But to be honest when I was his age I too hated school and I didn't start really enjoying it til college. But I would work with him but I cannot make or force him to like school. But we'd definitely work on it.

 

[Bazza]

Thanks for the followup BB.

Sounds like he's a great kid.....but that teacher.....she has a future as a politician!

Good job - keep up the great work!

 

[stlimprov]

"This RSA Animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

 

[mittman]

"This RSA Animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Interesting.

I agree that the system was built on the needs of the industrial revolution, and there were some obviously wrong assumptions made concerning intelligence. However, if we change the system to a paradigm based on his assumptions, how are we to continue to produce productive workers and have a baseline for what employers are needing to fill positions in the current economic environment? Would he have everyone working in the arts?

He seems to make some leaps that are not logical. I have many problems with standardized testing, but absent other metrics (most people that rail against them fail to come of with an alternative) how are we to determine whether an education system is actually teaching the material? Collaboration only works in an education environment truly work together instead of just letting the best one do all of the work .(I usually ended up doing most of the work when I got put in a group to produce a project because I was usually the only one who cared about the grade). In a business environment one would hope that a member of a team that is not adding to the strength of the team would get culled.

The locations specific data on the instances of ADD/ADHD was news to me. Is this correct and widely known?

This seems to be another one of those guys that sounds good just to sound good. He never seems to fully explains what his new paradigm is, how it would work, and what knowledge would be imparted. There are obvious issues with the current systems, but he seems to just shift to a system that benefits another, and IMO probably much smaller subset of people.

 

[stlimprov]

I haven't watched the full talk, or read any of his work...I just linked that because I found it very thought provoking.

As to the motivation question, this is another piece from the same series that is very interesting. I'm reading the book right now (Drive by Dan Pink).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc