Operation Hope: Stepping Back

We had Gavin home for a little bit this afternoon.  After picking him up from school, I asked him how his classday was.

Apparently, that was a big mistake.

I honestly don’t even know why I put myself through that.  Gavin never answers my questions and when he does, he dances around the truth because he doesn‘t want us to know.

Today was one of those days. Apparently, he had gotten frustrated in Math class.  I asked him what happened.  He couldn’t remember. Lizze and I patiently listed off what we thought could have happened and Gavin just said no.

Lizze called the school to speak with Gavin’s teachers.  We figured that would be the best way to know what actually happened.

 

Our concern was that maybe he needed help in something and we wanted to make sure that he got that help.

Instead we found out that apparently, Gavin doesn‘t like to show his work when he does math problems. His teachers explained to him that sometimes, he has to show his work, especially when that’s what the instructions tell you to do.

We also learned that the other problem is that Gavin wants to rush through his work so that he can go play on the computer while he’s waiting for the rest of the class to finish.

He rudely interrupts the class and essentially demands that his teacher stop what she’s doing and check his papers so that he can play games on the computer. The teachers have taken to simply waving him through because otherwise it disrupts the rest of the class.

That will be stopping, beginning Thursday morning.

I’m going to speak to his teacher and explain that Gavin simply doesn‘t get computer time unless it’s a necessary part of the lesson.

That should address that problem.

I also don’t want the teachers taking any crap from Gavin either.  He absolutely must be held accountable for his decisions and subsequent actions.

The bottom line is that Gavin will not be dictating anything to his teachers.  We’ve had the same problems at speech and OT as well.

Having said everything above, I also realized that Gavin no longer resides with us.  Many of the day to day decisions now fall on Lizze’s parents.  I will still address the school issues but this still brings up something that I hadn’t really faced yet.  I have to step back and let Lizze’s parents take over the day to day parenting.  Nothing against them at all, it’s just hard to take that step back,  at least for me.

Everyday I find a new personal challenge that I have to find a way to meet.  This one is particularly difficult for me.  🙁

Rob Gorski

Full time, work from home single Dad to my 3 amazing boys. Oh...and creator fo this blog. :-)
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MeaghanGood

When I was in third grade I went through a period where I refused to show my work in math. My teacher insisted that I turn in homework with the work shown, so I didn’t turn in homework at all. I wound up failing.