Trouble

We fully expected a great year as J (7 1/2) started 3rd grade, and Z (5) started kindergarten at our chosen Math & Science Magnet school. We were surprised to discover that most of the kids in J's class were not the same as last year. We'd been led to believe that his classmates would remain fairly constant throughout his elementary career, because they generally kept children of comparable abilities together. Actually, in kindergarten through 2nd grade, they divided the children into classes solely on their academic achievements, a theory I thoroughly condone. I can imagine that, as a teacher, it is far easier to teach a class more matched in their abilities, so I wouldn't have to constantly teach so many different learning levels at once, or spend so much time trying to pull up the slower children, while worrying about keeping the advanced children challenged.

It wasn't until I attended a meeting at the gifted center that I discovered the reason for mixing up the classes. In 2nd grade, the gifted children left their classroom to attend a special class down the hall with the gifted coordinator. The class was one hour long, on Mondays. But in 3rd grade, the gifted children from several schools take a bus to the Challenge Center at another elementary school. They spend most of Tuesday out of their regular classrooms. Since J had 15 gifted kids in his 2nd grade class, that would have deprived his teacher of nearly the entire class every Tuesday. Up until this year, that's exactly what happened, but the other teachers complained, so they mixed up the gifted kids among the rest of their grade.

This has become a problem for J. Last year, he reported being teased and bullied. He said it was never from his own classmates, among whom he was a bit of a celebrity after skipping a grade, but from other 2nd graders. Well, now those same children are mixed up in his regular classroom. He says that one boy keeps poking the scar on his head, which is from the reconstructive surgery done a few months ago to repair a benign birth defect. 

For the past two weeks (and we're only 4 weeks into the school year), J has been irritable and snappish. I couldn't get to the bottom of it, despite my probing into how he feels about school. In our last discussion, I asked him if he knew what was bothering him. With pleading in his voice, he answered, "No, I have no idea. Do you know why?"

Apparently his unhappiness has not gone unnoticed by his classroom teacher. She asked for an early parent-teacher conference. Other responsibilities prevented my meeting with her. We have since communicated, and that requires a separate post.