Late night catechism

Wowsers, this morning came way too early!

Of course, being up until one in the morning composing a letter to one of the children's teachers didn't help.

Seems someone is having difficulty focusing in class. Starts doodling instead of listening to instruction. Then gets wrong answers on the quizzes because he wasn't paying attention. Ooops! Gotta nip that in the bud (as my good friend Deputy Fife would say). Otherwise, Life As We Know It will collapse into a black hole, and Armageddon will ensue.

We have a theory on that, a theory which was presented in the aforementioned letter. Would you like to hear it? Of course you would! It isn't every day you get to hear parents dreaming up excuses for their childrens unacceptable behavior.

Two years ago, aforementioned child (AC for short) was in classroom where the teacher was unable to maintain discipline. AC, being a normally compliant child, bagged out on the bad behavior and kept to himself, did his work, then had all this free time available because the teacher was still trying to get the unruly kids under some semblance of control. He drew. He read. He got in the habit of tuning out.

The next year, it wasn't quite as bad -- but the habit was a bit ingrained. He took every spare moment to do his own thing. Since there were still lots of misbehaving kids, there was plenty of opportunity. The teacher was better prepared this year, but still ... it was relatively chaotic.

This year, with the addition of a new school to the district, a dramatic reduction in class sizes, and the loss of many of the unruly students, there is no 'free' time anymore. There is no more chaos in the classroom. BUT ... the habit is burned in. He tunes out at the drop of a hat. He doodles. He draws. He fades away.

Oddly enough - and this is where my dander gets up - I didn't find out about this until I complained about that most Sacred of Cows, homework. My position is that there is altogether too much. The Teacher disagreed, and only then brought up the fact that aforementioned child is doodling instead of paying attention.

That strikes me as a rather defensive posture.

So, first of all, I'm furious that I didn't find out until now that AC is having trouble focusing in class. Second, I'm upset that the teacher wants to put all the blame on him. I'm more of a mind that the kid will tune out whenever the teacher fails to engage his attention, i.e. the teacher is BORING. Ever have one of those kinds of teachers?

Third, I'm put out because my child is getting a bad attitude about school, an attitude fostered by two years of coasting through chaotic classes and then suddenly hitting the brick wall of reality. So now we have to back-track, fix the problem, program in those good study habits, remind him to show respect, pay attention, etc., otherwise he's going to slide down the slippery slope into dropoutsville.

I still hate homework.