Evaluations

No classes today. I only teach two days a week although it feels like more. Today I have the joy of filling out a four page non-sensical  progress report for each child. It contains such helpful items as, Knows some letters. Almost every child knows some letters but how many, which ones. Maybe I am too detailed and precise.

Evaluations. The things really worth evaluating rarely find their way on to forms and if they did, they would be hard to measure. Character. Perseverance. Problem solving. It can be frightening how early patterns are set in children's lives. If left undisturbed, these patterns become deep sometimes unhealthy ruts that last a lifetime.

O came to class a whiner. The second something challenges him, he points his finger and lets out a whine. Not words, not complaints just a  high pitch whine followed by repeated grunts. "Fix it now, His Royal Highness is not happy."

He barely gives the faucet a token touch before he starts his whine grunts. It is obvious that he wants you to turn the water on for him. With so many demands, it is so easy to just reach out my hand and turn the water on to stop the obnoxious sounds emitting from his mouth. Yesterday I stopped. Unlike many of my kid's he has a good grasp of English. "O, ask me to turn the water on please?" Silence. "O, say, 'Turn the water on please'" Stunned shock. After several more repeats, my words finally penetrated.  I wasn't going to turn the water on until he politely asked me to, so he opened his mouth and asked.

Disturbing the patterns. Will O ever develop any perseverance, I hope so. Or will he always expect things to be easy and when they aren't, give up at the first faint hearted token effort. I need to take the time to disturb the patterns in my kid's lives. It is so easy for me to get caught up in the daily demands of learning the alphabet and numbers, maintaining order and finishing an activity on time and loose sight  of the big picture, pivotal teaching moments that shape character.

My motto for my class next year. " I Can Do Hard Things" comes to me by way of my daughter who is such an inspiration to me as I watch her interact with her two gifted high needs children.