teachers

In Slovakia, we had the same teacher for a long time in elementary school.  At least for the first 4 grades I think it was the same teacher.  Here, Kade has had a different teacher every year.  And I have to say, they were all wonderful teachers, until this year. :)  Not that she's bad or mean or anything like that, she just doesn't seem to drive the kids and push them to their limits.  We meet with the teachers twice a year and the first time we met with her it was still the beginning of the year and I wasn't sure what to really think.  This time, we just met with her last night, I was able to form a better opinion and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed.  Not that she is not doing her job, just her attitude towards the class.  I get it, she has mostly boys who are a bit immature (including Kade) because they are months younger than the rest so she has to deal with a lot of that but overall the class is doing exceptionally well academically but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to her.  Our meeting with her wasn't very long but we spent most of the time talking about Kade either misbehaving with the other boys or him tattle telling on others.  We do recognize it as his weak point right now because he does that a lot at home but we're trying to deal with it.  He's very much concerned with everyone around him and if they are not following the rules he'll be the first one to point it out.  In a way, I think it is a good character trait to have for when he grows up but on the other hand I try to explain to him how nobody likes being told on by someone and especially teachers do not like it.  I'm not sure how to get it through to him because it seems like every day I have to talk to him about it over and over.

Anyway, that is a pretty minor thing because he is very responsible to do all his work and always stays on task at school.  He is also very competitive and tries so hard to improve his score if someone is ahead of him, which is really great.  One thing that bugs me about his teacher though is that she barely even mentioned anything about how well he's doing with math and reading.  She's just like a matter of fact, "you know he passed all the math levels so that's great."  I'm thinking that's all you have to say?  He worked so hard to finish all the levels and she barely acknowledges that.  Their goal really is for all the kids in the class to finish the levels by the end of the school year.  He worked and worked on it and he was the first one in his class by like a month to finish all the levels.  In my mind, that speaks for something and I was so proud of him when he did that.  But I guess that doesn't mean that much to his teacher because he's the tattle tell. :)

I know, I can't complain because kids nowadays have it so easy as far as teachers go.  They're all so nice to the kids, they can't ever go after a misbehaving child or else they would hear back from the upset parents right away.  So Kade doesn't have it hard by any means, but I can tell a huge difference from 2nd to 3rd grade.  He loved his teacher before and was so close to her and wanted to please her so bad but it's not there with his teacher this year.  In a way, I think he wants to win her approval so bad but that won't happen.  And it's ok.  That is life and I know God can use the not such good experiences for our good.  People are not going to be nice to us everywhere we go and it is good for Kade to see that.  And our job is to be the light for those that live in the darkness.  We can't be that light when all we do is stay in our safe homes and safe churches and only spend time with our good Christian friends.  I hope Kade can get stronger and learn from the hard times he has sometimes in school, whether it's with bullies, mean kids or teachers that favor other kids.  And I pray I have the wisdom to teach him and steer him in the right direction and to just be there for him and be available whenever he needs me.  Because in the end, Ehren and I are his first and most important teachers and we need to be the ones teaching him right from wrong.