1:31 pm - Friday, Oct. 31, 2003
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Boy's parent/teacher conferences were last night. I recognise in Boy the feeling that one is doing a good job in school because one is doing better than just about everyone else. This is untrue: he will be doing well when he faces problems he doesn't know how to answer and figures them out. When he does the work that he is capable of doing, not just the work that's been asked of him. Simon, Boy's Teacher

ASIDE:

Let's just call her Mrs. SaintII, having decided after the fact that Boy's first teacher should have been Mrs. Saint...

AS I WAS SAYING:

and I all agree that this is not true. She gave him mostly check marks on his report card, which means that he is performing as expected. He is doing work that is far beyond his grade level at times, but in general he is not doing his personal best.

I am not just worrying about his schooling. It worries me that on the rare occasions he doesn't automatically know the answer he seems to be at a complete loss. It worries me that when he doesn't know the answer he decides it means something about him... (i.e., that he's dumb,that if he were smart he'd know the answer every single time.) It worries me that he seems to think that because you aren't the best at some task, the task is not worthwhile for you to do, and definately isn't worth doing your best at.