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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
My son did WHAT?!
“I wanted to share some info about your kids …” the email from our son’s teacher began.
I’m an iPhone addict, so when my phone beeped to alert me I had a message, I read it right away.
Upon opening the message and revealing who it was from I was immediately emotionally transported from our current location - a game night party with friends - to “Uh-Oh What Now? Land.”
I mean, if something is worthy of a message from a teacher it’s going to be: A.) embarrassing B.) worrisome C.) embarrassing or D.) not what you think.
“… do not be alarmed this is good news!” the message continued. Whew! And the answer is D!
Our second grade son’s teacher had been suffering from a bout of Frog-In-Your-Throat. She was having a hard time speaking loud enough for the students to hear her. Thus, the kids decided that speaking out of turn was OK. After all, the teacher couldn’t yell at them.
“Wednesday - they (my son and two others) did great throughout the day until the last 10 minutes or so of the day, as they were influenced by other students to talk.”
My blood pressure went up a little.
How many times do I have to tell him the teacher is in charge of the class room!? He is to listen to her, not his friends/peers? Oh, right. Calm down. Read the “good news.”
My son, and several others, ended up having his name written on the board which usually results in a consequence, but they were never told what their consequence would be.
Rather than rejoice - Yay, no consequence! - my son and two of his friends decided to impose their own.
Huh? I had to reread that part …
“After recess they came in from outside and told me they did not play.”
The kids explained to their teacher that they sat against the wall and denied themselves precious play time as a self-imposed consequence for talking during class the day before.
“I turned this moment into yet another teachable moment and praised each one of these students for having an outstanding set of morals and praised them for respecting me as their teacher,” the teacher wrote.
“As I shared with the class what these three had just done, applause broke out and the other students praised them as well.”
The teacher ended up rewarding them for showing such character.
Oh, how I relish these proud moments in child rearing. But, fellow-mom Heather said it best, “I am very proud of these three for actually understanding they were wrong! I am concerned though that this ‘self-imposed’ consequence does not carry through here at home!”
If only …
Contact this contributing writer at Motherhoodcolumn@yahoo.com or facebook.com/motherhoodCTC
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