hello, yes, this is the principal calling

she's so nice to call & check in once in awhile....
too bad it always coincides with Z pulling some shit at school.

his behavior has improved, but there's still plenty, PLENTY of room for improvement. we re-instilled the chart, you remember?, yeah, we kept it, thought of passing it on to good will, but it's come in handy.

again.

so it seems he can only manage to either be good at home or at school; it's much too taxing to be good ALL day long.

by good at school, i don't mean a week of greens (green/yellow/orange/red, although sometimes Z has achieved a double red. [we're so proud! no, we are not!]), we're 2/3's way thru the year & we have yet to have one, single week of all green. he has done well with cutting back on the oranges though, for the most part at least.

remember, boy? 8? child of B?
hmpf...

so this time the principal called & although i was driving i recognized the # so i answered it [if you're a cop, i safely pulled over to the side of the road first]. she told me Z was fine but she needed to discuss "an incident" & asked if it was a good time to talk, so i told her i was driving [really, side of the road, you believe me right?] but i could call her right back. she had a meeting so she said she would call me back.

minutes, then hours past & no return call & i was a friday & i really needed to know how many lashes much punishment to issue before the day was complete. so just before school's end i went to the office & she explained to me the incident had happened the prior afternoon. that Z had been playing with another boy earlier in the day & at the end of the day the kid didn't want to play with him or something so Z grabbed him by his jacket & swung him around. then he kinda did a little bend the finger back mafia-style thing.

but he didn't bite anybody.
anywhere.

on the scale of Z = not so bad;
that Z has his own scale = not exactly good.

either the parent saw or was told & reported it to the office. rightly so, Z needs to realize he can't do such things & i'm glad they call him on it, whether it's immediately or later. i just wish they didn't have to call me on it.

i also went over & spoke with Z's teacher. i explained that i needed her opinion, that Z's an only child, that i'm an only child, that i have nothing to compare him to. i know he's difficult, but i don't know if he's on the outskirts of normal. i know she's not a doc & i wasn't asking her to prescribe; but she's around 60 kids a day & been teaching for 9 years, she knows children more than i ever will.

she said he's not a bully & he's not mean, but in certain situations his self-control isn't where it should be.