talk, talk, talk

yesterday afternoon Z's teacher called me back & i told her of my concerns & about how surprised i was to hear of what he was like in class & blah, blah, blah. i know he's behind in reading & therefore comprehension, but the math really shocked me. i guess part of it was i assumed, that many of the things she cited were true of most 1st graders.

anyways, i asked about the individualized instruction testing thing (IEP for those in the know). she explained there's a preliminary exam & there has to be a minimal 20% discrepancy in areas (ie, good in math but not in reading); if the scoring is low in everything they explore other options.

the worst part is, they actually PREFER a child to be held back a year & repeat a grade BEFORE even testing them! in hopes that the child just "needs to mature".
is it just me or is that back-ass-wards?
wouldn't it be better to help him now, maybe he can catch up.

then after work i went & dropped off the paperwork at Z's counselor's office. she surprisingly was available so i talked with her a minute. she gave me a list of child psychiatrists so we can take Z in to determine if indeed his does have ADD, because teacher's paperworks screams "yes he does" although we disagree & think he just needs to be under someone's thumb.

his reading has improved dramatically over the past few months. last night, he did 4 sheets of math homework & barely asked for any help. he even kept on saying "this is easy!" so i told him he needs to work like that in class, he needs to do his worksheets, he needs to show his teacher that he knows how to do this stuff. i know how smart he is, but that his teacher needs to see it on paper.