"As you know Mrs. Garcia," his preschool teacher said, "Rio is right handed."
"No...he's left handed," I corrected her.
"Not according to his evaluation," she continued.
I could hear in the tone of her voice, she had the degree in child development, I was just a parent. I rolled my eyes and pretended to take her serious.
She reported that he could count all twenty objects, he could point to all of his body parts, he knew all prepositions, he could draw a circle, and write his name. He knew all of the letters, numbers, colors, and what ever else had been taught in the school year.
"But let me show you his Visual Perceptual Organization," she said as she handed me the evaluation. "He was instructed to draw himself and this is what he drew."
It was impressive.
"Rio drew a person with 4 eyes and a many fingers...when asked why he drew so many fingers, he said they were shooting fingers in case someone needs help." She said with obvious concern. "At this age we would prefer that he had a self image other than that of a super hero."
"He's four! Are you giving this same advice to the parents of little girls who think they're princesses and have added tiaras to their drawings?" I asked sarcastically. "Isn't it imagination that creates astronauts?"
No answer.
I continued to the bottom of the page. "I see it says at the bottom of this page... his preferred hand is marked left?" I wondered, who really evaluated my child.
And as I predicted.
"We suggest you hold him back, and wait another year for kindergarten," she advised. "It's better now than later. He still cries easily, and he doesn't show any interest in drawing."
I strongly disagreed. But what do I know, I'm only his mother.
He's in second grade now...guess what hand he uses.
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Well, even though I work in the schools as a teacher, I learned that with my son, my gut was the best indicator of what was best for him. However he did have some darn good teachers that helped him along the way, but I was right there supporting him to help him be successful.
ReplyDeleteCurious that they could not determine his hand dominance easily. Must not have watched him for long.
For every good teacher, you have about five bad ones. It's just the nature of public education. Good mothers know their children best. I'm glad you didn't let this teacher bully you.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of stuff they make kids do these days in and before kindergarten is, in my non-expert, non-degree-having opinion, ridiculous. My daughter is in Kindergarten, and yes, she can write full sentences, which I wasn't required to do until late first grade... but she's also showing signs of stress, so say those who have said degrees.
ReplyDeleteAre any of us who were allowed to actually be kids during our youth, any worse off for it? Would I be a skillionaire right now if I'd learned to write "I look at the bus" two years earlier?
I always go with my gut when it comes to my daughter... her preschool teacher tried to tell me she was dislexic, after a series of specialists we learned nope, she just hates to do school work
ReplyDeleteI guess they expect him to color in the lines and make the sky blue right?
ReplyDeleteSigh...I hate when adults forget what it was like to be a kid and actually have fun!
Don't all four year olds think they're superheros? Sounds good to me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog :)
Good for you. I think teachers are incredible servants to society, but not all teachers are equal. The parent has to be the child's advocate. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteHooray for you mom!!!!! I had a similiar experience with my son.
ReplyDeleteSorry you had to go thru that. It's nuts when these so-called 'experts' with their degrees and whatnots totally write off a parent as just, what? foolish breeding livestock? As if being a parent equalled having a lobotomy and that we're totally incompetant to rear our own kids without their 'expert' help. It's even more hilarious when the 'expert' has no children of their own!
ReplyDelete-Here on the blog hop, got you on GFC and voted for you on TOP 25.