Parent Teacher Conferences

It's the end of the first quarter at school, and time for the annual parent/teacher conferences.  I've been doing this for a number of years now and wasn't nervous, not even when Lacey told me that her teacher would probably say that she is "sort of good and a litttle bad."   I arrived about 5 minutes early for Lacey's conference.  I know I said that I was experienced at these things.  So, you're probably wanting to point out that conferences never run on time, much less early.  But, I had a busy evening ahead of me and wanted to hope.  I paced in front of the open classroom doorway for about 15 minutes, listening to a mother describe all the wonderful things that her overachieving child does at home. 

"Listen, honey," I murmured, "The teacher spends more waking hours with your child than you do.  She knows how wonderful he is.  You are clearly a first-timer." 
Sensing that I was in for the long wait, I wandered down the hall and started scanning the schoolwork displayed on the walls.  I found the following paper, written and illustrated by Lacey.

  Here is an interpretation:

One day a girl came to America.  Her name was Lacey.  She have a new sister and a new brother and new dad and new mom.  She have a new family.  Her new family is nice.  She like her family.  Sometimes she gets stuff.  (The last sentence eluded me.  I'm not sure if she sat on her family or on her stuff.)

Well, of course, I burst into tears and all the parents wandering the hallways stared at me and murmured to themselves.  But, really - not only can Lacey write with invented spelling, capital letters and punctuation, she's writing about her family!  She tells me she loves me on a daily basis.  So, I'm not really sure why I reacted so strongly to her story.  I think maybe it was the Public Display of Affection that got to me.  I finally had my moment with Lacey's teacher, who is wonderful.  I didn't really care about Lacey's reading level, her performance on standardized tests, or anything else.  My kid has a sister, brother, mom and dad!  

I sped home, started dinner and raced back to school for Cassie's conference.  Cassie's teacher began with, "I'm not really sure there's anything I could tell you about Cassie that you don't already know. . . .Straight A student. . .  award for good behavior. . . . I love this child . . . . she does no wrong. . . "

"Come on," I interrupted.  "What about her spelling?  Her spelling is atrocious"

"I love her writing."

"Hmmm," I pursued, "What about her desk?  Is her desk neat?" 

"You got me," laughted the teacher. "Her desk is a mess!"

Feeling relieved that Cassie's not entirely perfect, I headed for home.

Today, Lacey proudly announced that she got in trouble at school for grabbing a little boy's butt. 

"Why did you do this?"  we asked.  

"Because I wanted to talk to him."

"What did the teacher say?"

"We don't touch people's butts!"

Clearly, there are still quite a few things that Lacey needs to learn.  But, her family is "nies," and what else really matters?