Pink slips and undecorated folders *shutter*

We have a lot going on in our house right now. Most of it concerning Lefty and his school work. Every night the kids all sit at the table in the kitchen nook area and do homework. I make dinner and Mr. Man is available to help the kids. Neither one of us hover over the kids to be sure they are doing each item and doing it correctly, but we do glance at things and are definitely there to help. In my opinion, it is the kids responsibility to do what the teacher has assigned them, I tell them that I am not the one in class and therefore do not have any clue what the assignments are. Spirit's teacher sends home a weekly syllabus type thing so I can look at that and be sure he has completed what is expected each night. Lefty's teacher does not, so we must rely on Lefty to know what his assignments are.

Every night he sits at the table and puts a pencil to paper. Every night before bed I ask if he has any papers I need to sign (he is supposed to read 30 minutes each night and have an adult initial a reading log -- since he goes to the after-school program he usually reads there and has one of the adult helpers sign his form) and every night he tells me "No, mom."

Only the Lord knows what he has been doing at the table each night, because clearly his parents have NO idea... let me explain:

Monday he handed Mr. Man a note. A pink note labeled "NOTICE OF MISSING ASSIGNMENTS". The teacher had handwritten a lengthy note about how Lefty isn't doing his assignments and he was unable to complete a class assignment that day due to the fact that he hadn't completed something from the week before and instructed us to ask him what had happened.

We had a long talk with Lefty and he explained that the reason he couldn't complete the class assignment was because on a class assignment from the week before she didn't like the way he wrote his "e's" so she made him sit and write "e's" for 20 minutes.

Her note also told us that one homework assignment from last week was to decorate his homework folder and again, she told us to ask him why that was important. When we asked him, he said "Well, she wants us to decorate it so we know which folder is ours, but my name is written on it so I already KNOW which folder is mine."

I don't see why that was such a bad point, but I explained that it doesn't matter because it was an assignment to decorate it and he needed to decorate it.

He also told us that he doesn't know what she expects of him. He said she hands them packets and he doesn't know what he is supposed to do. My answer to that is that he needs to either get clarification from her before he leaves for the day OR ask us when he gets home to see if we can help him figure it out.

So after our long talk with him we went through the homework folder together with him and get this:

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO DO!!!

There was a packet of about 8-10 pages plus 2 loose pages in his undecorated homework folder. Most of the pages didn't have instructions at the top and we couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do.

For example, here is what one page looked like:

NOUNS

bread, grain, ______________

goat, cow, ________________

bus, car, _________________


There were probably 5 others like this on the page. Seriously? What was he supposed to do exactly? My guess was to find another noun similar to those words listed? But we didn't know so we skipped it and I wrote a sticky note on that page explaining that we didn't understand it. No wonder my little guy is frustrated.

I sent a letter back to the teacher explaining our talk with Lefty and things he told to us. I explained that I expect him to listen to instructions during class, but it would be helpful to us to have a syllabus or something similar so we can know what is expected of him. I put my phone number and email address.

Got home last night to another note from the teacher. She responded to my note. She said things like "I'm sorry you chose to have Lefty complete that packet because that wasn't part of the homework for last night and the one thing I needed him to complete was the Spelling Preview Test which he did not complete. This has to be frustrating for us all."

Guess what people? He most certainly DID do the Spelling Preview Test but as I told her in my first note I sent in, he wasn't sure where he was supposed to write it because she is picky about which paper they use so I had him use the back of the Spelling Preview Test. I wanted to fire another letter back to her saying, "You stupid idiot, read my note and look on the back of that sheet for the assignment." I didn't write that letter (well, actually I did but Mr. Man made me tear it up. He thinks we need to go face-to-face now)

Mr. Man happened to attend a PTA meeting last night and the principal laughed and said "So, I hear Lefty did a whole packet of homework he didn't need to do. ha ha ha haha ha ha haha" Mr. Man got ticked and said "It was NOT funny in our house last night. We take this stuff seriously."

I think the teacher knows we are upset and was "covering her butt" (so-to-speak) with the principal which is why the principal knew about the homework debacle. But guess what? I am so hacked off right now, I will have her butt in a sling faster than she can spit. I am the most reasonable parent she will come in contact with and I have high expectations of my kids. I value teachers and think my kids should respect them. I also know that my kids (especially Lefty) can have a mind of his own and sometimes doesn't like being told what to do, but this is the first time I have ever had these kinds of issues with him. School is almost done for the year and this is the first issue we are having so why not pick up the phone and say to me "gee, this is unlike him, what could be going on?" but instead she sent home a "pink slip". I mean really lady! Get a grip!

Last night after the kids were in bed, Mr. Man and I were talking and he thinks we need to come down and let things settle for a couple days before we have a conference. WHAT? I am so fired up, let's go NOW!! Ok, ok, I see his point, she might lose her head if I go in there today!